Inside The Travis Scott Concert That Turned Into A Mass Casualty Event

It was supposed to be an opening night filled with lively musical fun at rapper Travis Scott's Astroworld music festival in Houston, Texas on November 5, but mayhem broke out into deadly chaos, involving what authorities are labeling a crushing incident. Per the New York Post, the city's fire chief Samuel Peña shared that 300 people had been injured and at least eight people had died after concertgoers at Houston's NRG Park "began to compress" toward the stage. "People started to fall out, become unconscious and it created additional panic," Peña told the press, declaring the event a "mass casualty incident."

Among the 23 people immediately rushed to the hospital, one was a 10-year-old child and 11 were in cardiac arrest. On the scene, an estimated 300 people were treated for minor injuries, such as cuts and bruises. According to Peña, as of this writing, there's no known cause of death for the eight individuals who were killed, with people trying to locate loved ones staying at the local Wyndham Hotel. Scott himself is fully cooperating with the investigation, Houston Police Department Chief Troy Finner revealed (per BBC), as is LiveNation, which held Astroworld, giving police access to their concert footage. 

"Our hearts are with the Astroworld Festival Family Tonight, especially those we lost and their loved ones," the Astroworld Instagram account posted November 6. "As authorities mentioned in their press conference earlier, they are looking into the series of cardiac arrests that took place."

As the story of Travis Scott's November 5 Astroworld music festival tragedy continues to develop, the death toll might be higher than initially noted on November 6, per the New York Post. As Houston Fire Department Chief Samuel Peña told MSNBC, "What we know is that we have eight people who have died as a result of the injuries suffered at that event. That number may rise, because we did transport more people in critical condition. We took 11 that they were performing CPR on en route to the hospital." 

The sobering event has left authorities scrambling for answers, but as Houston Police Department Chief Troy Finner stated on November 5 following the incident (per BBC), "Nobody could dream of this. But we're here, and I think it's very important that none of us speculate. Nobody has all the answers tonight." The chief, however, did say the police caught word of "rumors of people injecting people with drugs" at the concert ahead of the crushing incident.

Although the victims remain unidentified, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner revealed at a news conference on November 6 (per CNN) that the victims were all between 16 and 23 years of age. As he told the press, "[t]here are a lot of unanswered questions," and much will be uncovered in the days and weeks ahead.