The tragedy has turned into a criminal investigation after Houston’s Police Chief Troy Finner and Fire Chief Samuel Pena said “several – many” Narcan doses were given to revellers, suggesting multiple people may have been drugged in an attack.Chief Finner said a security officer at the concert may have been injected with drugs by an unknown person at the time of the crowd surge.“One of the narratives [going around] was that some individual was injecting other people with drugs. We do have a report of a security officer, according to the medical staff that treated him last night, that he was reaching over to restrain or grab a citizen and he felt a prick in his neck.”He said the officer was revived with Narcan, a nasal spray used to treat suspected opioid overdoses, and medical staff “did notice a prick that was similar to what you would get if somebody was trying to inject”.The horrific event, which saw eight people die among 50,000 concertgoers in Houston, Texas, was captured on video posted to social media, and fans were seen climbing onto the stage screaming: “Stop the show. There’s someone dead.”Concertgoers at Travis Scott’s Astroworld music festival were seen trying to stop the show as he continued singing. Another person cried out: “People are f***ing dying, I want to save somebody’s life.”A young man and a woman both approached a cameraman. His response is unclear as the music blared over the top.Another video shows Scott singing on a podium as revellers were being attended to by Houston Police and paramedics. In another video of the 75-minute event, which was streamed live on Apple Music, Scott is seen looking into the crowd and saying “What the f**k is that?” Of the other seven people who perished, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said one was 16, two were 21, one was 23, one was 27, and one’s age remains unknown.A child “as young as 10” was also injured in the tragedy. Mr Turner said 25 were taken to hospital, of which five were under the age of 18, and 13 are still recovering there. Nobody has been reported missing.“We’re not going to leave any stone unturned,” he said. “We want to look at every single detail to determine what led up to it and what additional steps that need to take place to keep it from happening again, especially in this city.”Scott did stop his show a few times and stopped several times when he spotted fans in distress near the stage. He reportedly asked security to make sure they were okay. Emergency vehicles, lights and alarms flashing, cut through the crowds several times.NED-4914-Astroworld festival chaosScott, who also performed with surprise guest Drake on stage, tweeted after the event that saying: “I am absolutely devastated by what took place last night. My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at Astroworld Festival.”His girlfriend Kylie Jenner, who also attended the event, copped further online backlash for posting a video of an ambulance tending to the injured and dead in the crowd as the chaos unfolded. Her sister Kendall was also at the concert.It is unclear what Scott knew of the extent of the crowd crush before it occurred, as fans accused him of not doing enough to stop it. The concert’s producer Live Nation Worldwide and Live Nation Entertainment are working with police sharing footage of the event as police work to identify victims and await the medical examiner’s investigation to determine a cause of death. When the crowd started pushing toward the stage at Houston’s NRG Park on Friday night as Scott was performing, it triggered a chaotic deadly stampede.Madeline Eskins, an ICU nurse who was also at the concert as a fan for the third annual festival, told FOX 26 the event was unlike anything she had seen before.“It was absolutely insane,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like that in my life. I am disturbed. Honestly, it should have been stopped.”“People were being pushed, people were being trampled, and then as I fought my way out of there, I saw people on the ground,” Logan Morris, a Dallas native who was at the show, told AFP.Raul Marquez, 24, said he saw a lot of drinking and drug use in the crowd. “And they got hot and just dancing and it all caved in and just, they couldn’t breathe, and passed out left and right,” he said.“Some people didn’t care and just stomped on them or ignored them. It was intense.”Mr Turner said authorities were looking at video footage, talking to witnesses, concert organisers and people who were hospitalised.Houston is known for staging high profile events, he said, but “we’ve never had anything like this occur.” More than 300 people were treated on the scene for minor injuries in the first night of the two-day Astroworld Festival, which Scott helped organise.Survivors described chaotic scenes of people squeezed up against one another with many struggling to breathe.Gavyn Flores, 18, said he was standing on the edge of the crowd near a barricade and could not move, for hours on end. He said he tried to hoist people over that wall.“People were trying to get out, but you can’t move. So there kind of wasn’t a point of trying to get out, because they couldn’t. But if they could, we were trying to help them get thrown over,” Flores told AFP.More than 360 police officers and 240 security guards were on hand for the festival.Senior Harris County official Lina Hidalgo said it was “an extremely tragic night.” “Our hearts are broken, people go to these events to have a good time, to make memories,” she added.Judge Hidalgo acknowledged a previous incident in which Live Nation, the organiser of the concert, had suffered a crowd stampede.“It may well be that this tragedy is a result of unpredictable events of circumstances coming together that couldn’t possibly have been avoided. But until we determine that, I will ask the tough questions, and that’s what I’ve spent the morning doing,” she said.“What I know so far is that Live Nation and Astroworld put together plans for this event: a security plan, a site plan; that they were at the table with City of Houston and Harris County.“Perhaps the plans were inadequate. Perhaps the plans were good but they weren’t followed. Perhaps it was something else entirely.”“Over the course of just a few minutes, suddenly we had several people down on the ground experience some type of cardiac arrest,” assistant police chief Larry Satterwhite said.Astroworld organisers cancelled the rest of the festival, where Australian psych-rock band Tame Impala was scheduled to perform the following day. Other footage on social media showed scores of people rushing the gates at NRG park, with security unable to contain the flow.Several people could be seen falling over, bringing down the metal detectors at the arena entrance, but it was unclear if that incident was linked to the deaths.Scott launched the Astroworld music festival in 2018.A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson said in a statement they were aware of the reported crowd surge at the Astroworld Music Festival.“Our Post in Houston has confirmed that there are no victims from the stampede unaccounted for,” the spokesperson said.“Houston Post has not received any requests for any assistance at this time, and is not aware of any Australians being affected by the incident.”
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