Victims of Texas crowd surge ranged in age from 14 to 27, Houston mayor confirms
- The crowd at a Houston music festival surged toward the stage during a performance by rapper Travis Scott, squeezing fans so that they could not breathe
- Mayor Sylvester Turner said the disaster on Friday night was a tragedy and that it is too early to draw conclusions about what went wrong
A stampede of fans surging toward the stage during rap star Travis Scott’s Astroworld music festival in Houston killed at least eight people ranging in age from 14 to 27, officials said on Saturday.
Sylvester Turner, Houston’s mayor, said on Saturday that the disaster on Friday night was “a tragedy on many different levels” and that it was too early to draw conclusions about what went wrong.
Witnesses said the crowd surged toward the stage during a performance by rapper Travis Scott. The movement squeezed fans so tightly together that some could not breathe or move their arms.
The pandemonium unfolded at Astroworld, a sold-out, two-day event at NRG Park. An estimated 50,000 people were in attendance.
Niaara Goods, 28, said the crowd surged as a timer clicked down to the start of the performance.
“As soon as he jumped out on the stage, it was like an energy took over and everything went haywire. All of a sudden, your ribs are being crushed. You have someone’s arm in your neck. You’re trying to breathe, but you can’t,” Goods said.
