Astroworld festival tragedy: at least 8 killed in Houston when Travis Scott was on stage

(CNN) – At least eight people were killed and many others injured after a crowd came forward as rapper Travis Scott was on stage at the Astroworld Festival in Houston on Friday night, authorities said.

“We had dozens of people injured,” Houston Fire Chief Sam Peña said during a news conference early Saturday morning.

About 50,000 people were at the sold-out outdoor music festival at NRG Park, the stadium complex where the Astrodome and NRG Stadium are located, when the incident occurred shortly after 8 p.m. (Miami time), they said. the functionaries.

“The crowd, for whatever reason, started to push and climb towards the front of the stage, which made the people in the front compressed, they couldn’t escape from that situation,” Peña told CNN Saturday morning. .

That caused panic and the situation worsened and overwhelmed security personnel there, he said.

“People started fighting, losing consciousness and that generated additional panic,” Peña said at the press conference.

News in development …