Eight people were killed and scores hurt after a crowd surge on the opening night of a music festival in Houston, Texas.
According to emergency officials, panic broke out after the crowd began to press towards the front of the stage at rapper Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival.
Eleven people were taken to hospitals in cardiac arrest and eight died. Some casualties are as young as 10.
Around 50,000 people attended the outdoor event, which has been cancelled.
Lina Hidalgo, the county judge of Harris County, described what had happened as an “extremely tragic night”.
“Our hearts are broken,” she said. “People go to these events looking for a good time, a chance to unwind, to make memories – it’s not the kind of event you go to where you expect to find out about fatalities.”
Astroworld said in a statement that their hearts were with the “festival family… especially those we lost and their loved ones”, and they thanked local emergency services for their response.
The incident began around 21:15 on Friday (02:15 GMT Saturday), Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña said.
“The crowd began to compress toward the front of the stage, and people began to panic,” he told reporters.
As the crush began causing injuries to people, the panic grew, the official added.
