LAST UPDATE | 6 Nov 2021

EIGHT PEOPLE HAVE died and dozens have been injured at a music festival in Houston, Texas. 

Authorities confirmed that the people had passed away at the festival, which had been organised by rapper Travis Scott. 

“We had at least eight confirmed fatalities tonight and scores of individuals that were injured,” Houston fire chief Samuel Pena said, adding the cause of death was unknown following a mass casualty event.

Houston police said a total of 23 people have been sent to hospital and that the youngest was 10-years-old.

Fire chief Pena added: “At around 9 or 9:15, the crowd began to compress toward the front of the stage and that caused panic and people were getting injured. Houston Fire Department transported 17 people to hospitals.”

He added that 11 of those transported were in cardiac arrest.

Many people were also treated at the scene at NRG Park, where a field hospital had been set up. About 300 people were examined at that site throughout the day, he said.

Astroworld is a two-day music festival that was scheduled to take place on Friday and today in Houston. The event was sold out, according to the Astroworld website. Saturday’s performances have been cancelled.

Drake joined Travis Scott on-stage at the concert — which was live-streamed by Apple Music — and posted photos to Instagram after the performance.

Event promoters had arranged for medical units to be on scene at the festival, however once the crowd surge began, those units were “quickly overwhelmed,” Pena said.

Houston Police Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite was near the front of the crowd and said it seemed the surge “happened all at once”.

“Suddenly we had several people down on the ground, experiencing some type of cardiac arrest or some type of medical episode,” Mr Satterwhite said.

“And so we immediately started doing CPR, and moving people right then, and that’s when I went and met with the promoters, and Live Nation, and they agreed to end early in the interest of public safety.”

Mr Pena said officials did not immediately know the causes of death for the eight people who died.

A medical examiner would investigate. It was not clear whether all eight who died were among the 17 that had been transported to hospitals. The deceased had not been identified as of early this morning.

With reporting by Press Association