8 people were killed at Houston’s Astroworld Festival after crowd rushed the stage

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Travis Scott performs at the Astroworld Music Festival at NRG Park on Friday in Houston.

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Peña said there were about 50,000 guests in attendance during Scott’s performance. At about 9:38 p.m., 17 patients at the event were transferred to hospitals and 11 of those transferred experienced cardiac arrest, Peña said. The cause of their deaths has not yet been determined.

Houston Police Chief Troy Finner was adamant that the cause of the «mass casualty event» is still unknown and said that rumors of drug use at the concert were being looked into. Live Nation, the organizer of the concert, is providing authorities with video footage of the incident, Finner said.

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Shortly after 9 p.m. Friday during Travis Scott’s performance at the Astroworld Festival in Houston, the crowd started rushing the stage, authorities said.

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Festivalgoers are seen rushing into the VIP area prior to Travis Scott’s performance at the Astroworld music festival at NRG Park on Friday.

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Festivalgoers are seen rushing into the VIP area prior to Travis Scott’s performance at the Astroworld music festival at NRG Park on Friday.

Amy Harris/Invision/AP

Scott, a Grammy-nominated rapper and Houston native, launched his Astroworld Festival in 2018. In 2015, Scott was arrested after telling his fans to jump the barricades during his Lollapalooza performance, and in 2017 for encouraging people to rush the stage at a performance in Arkansas. The details of what caused the crowd surge at his latest concert in Houston are still unclear.

«My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at Astroworld Festival,» Scott wrote in a statement posted to Twitter. «I am committed to working together with the Houston community to heal and support the families in need.»