Astroworld Festival: Hundreds seen stampeding past security hours before fatal crowd crush

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Videos circulating on social media appear to show fans running past security at the entrance to the Astroworld music festival before the fatal crush that left eight dead on the opening day of the event.

Reports from local news station ABC13 Houston said “hundreds” of fans were seen running past security around 2pm to get into NRG Park where the event was held. It added that people were trampled and some even detained as security apparently tried to stop some fans from entering.

It was reported that fans broke through a fence to access the concert, leading to a “stampede” of fans entering the event.

“As we were arriving to the Astroworld Festival at NRG Park right at 2:00, a stampede burst through the gates. Hundreds of people destroyed the VIP security entrance, bypassing the checkpoint. People were trampled. Some were detained,” wrote Mycah Hatfield of ABC13 Houston.

Houston fire chief Samuel Pena told reporters that 50,000 people attended the concert which left eight dead following a mass casualty incident when the crowd began to press towards the front of the stage around 9pm.

More than 300 people were treated in a field hospital created in NRG Park by emergency services. Seventeen people were taken to hospital, including 11 who were suffering cardiac arrest, according to authorities.

According to the Houston Chronicle, Travis Scott, who founded the festival, stopped multiple times during his 75-minute performance when he spotted fans in distress near the front of the stage.

Chief of Houston Police Larry Satterwhite said emergency services immediately began giving CPR to distressed fans who had fainted.

“It seems like it happened with just over the course of a few minutes – suddenly we had several people down on the ground experiencing some type of cardiac arrest or some type of medical episode,” he said.

“We immediately started doing CPR... and that's when I went and met with the promoters, and Live Nation, and they agreed to end early in the interest of public safety.”

The Independent approached event organiser Live Nation for comment.