No fewer than eight people have been killed in an apparent stampede during the first night of a music festival that had about 50,000 people in attendance in the US state of Texas.
Gatekeepers News reports that the incident happened during a performance by rapper Travis Scott, who created and launched the event in 2018.
Houston fire chief Samuel Pena confirmed the deaths on Friday night at the Astroworld Festival.
“We had at least eight confirmed fatalities tonight and scores of individuals that were injured,” Pena said, adding the causes of death had not yet been determined.
Pena said the incident occurred when the crowd began to crowd around the stage at about 9:15pm local time (12:15 GMT). People then began to pass out from not being able to breathe.
“It happened all at once. It seemed like it just happened … over the course of just a few minutes,” said Houston Police Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite.
“Suddenly we had several people down on the ground, experiencing some type of cardiac arrest or some type of medical episode,” he added.
Pena said about 17 people were rushed to the hospital, including 11 who were in cardiac arrest. He noted that many people were also treated at the scene at NRG Park, where a field hospital had been set up.
Authorities said a reunification centre had been set up at a nearby hotel for those who have not heard from loved ones after the incident.
