Astroworld news latest Almost 60 lawsuits filed as police caught filming as mass casualty event declared

Nurse reveals chaos of Astroworld in detailed eye-witness account

Travis Scott’s lawyer has criticised what he called “finger-pointing” and “inconsistent messaging” by Houston police and officials in the wake of the deadly tragedy at Astroworld, instead urging them to get on with investigating Friday’s incident so that repeats in future can be avoided.

Meanwhile, at least 58 lawsuits have been filed in Harris County District Court in connection with the Astroworld disaster, as of Wednesday.

It comes after Houston’s police chief told a news conference that officials didn’t have the power to stop Scott’s performance as the disaster unfolded and that the “ultimate authority to end the show is with the production and the entertainer”.

TikTok was also struggling to control viral conspiracy theories falsely claiming that the deaths were part of a Satanic ritual.

Two criminal investigations and more than 30 lawsuits are now probing what went wrong at the Astroworld festival in Houston, Texas on Friday night, when a crowd surge killed at least people and injured hundreds more.

A nine-year-old boy is in a medically induced coma following his injuries, and a 22-year-old student has been declared brain dead.

Astroworld founder and headliner Travis Scott, who was performing when the crush happened, has said he is “devastated”.

Follow the latest updates live below.Show latest update 1636655633Calls to boycott Travis Scott intensifying

A movement calling for rapper Travis Scott to be boycotted has ramped up since the Astroworld concert tragedy in Houston last Friday, as #canceltravisscott trended on Twitter.

Online users, including former fans, are pushing to block Travis Scott’s music on Spotify and stop him performing at Coachella in April next year.

As videos from the ill-fated concert showed, Scott continued to perform for nearly 40 minutes after a mass casualty incident was declared at the concert.\

‘I wish that cancel culture would actually do its job and de-platform him,’ a former Travis Scott fan reportedly said.

Maanya Sachdeva has more on the story here:

Helen.Elfer11 November 2021 18:331636655629Calls to boycott Travis Scott intensifying

A movement calling for rapper Travis Scott to be boycotted has ramped up since the Astroworld concert tragedy in Houston last Friday, as #canceltravisscott trended on Twitter.

Online users, including former fans, are pushing to block Travis Scott’s music on Spotify and stop him performing at Coachella in April next year.

As videos from the ill-fated concert showed, Scott continued to perform for nearly 40 minutes after a mass casualty incident was declared at the concert.\

‘I wish that cancel culture would actually do its job and de-platform him,’ a former Travis Scott fan reportedly said.

Maanya Sachdeva has more on the story here:

Helen.Elfer11 November 2021 18:331636651803‘His little face has been engraved in my mind’ says man who helped 9-year-old victim

One of the people who helped Ezra Blount, the 9-year-old crushed by concertgoers during the Astroworld festival, has spoken about the tragedy. Andy Rios said he took Ezra from a security guard who was struggling to lift Ezra over the barrier.

“I caught him, and the next thing you know, I turned around, and I just started running and screaming to tell people to get out of my way,” said Mr Rios.

“His little face has been engraved in my mind,” he told ABC13.

Mr Rios said it was hard to get through to the crowd and he was forced to stop and do CPR before reaching the medic tent.

Ezra was later brought to Texas Children’s Hospital, where he remains in a medically induced coma. His family said he is showing no brain activity.

Helen.Elfer11 November 2021 17:301636651111Travis Scott called injured fans ‘heroes’ after past accidents

Travis Scott captioned an Instagram post from 2014: “It’s not a show until someone pass out,” and separately shared a picture of medics attending to a fan, writing: “Last day of the tour was tonight very wild. To that kid who blackout. Ur a hero.” reports The Sun.

The rapper also shared footage of fans rushing into festival grounds in November 2019, at an event in which a stampede left three people injured.

He captioned it: “Da youth dem control the frequency. Everyone have fun. Ragers set the tone when I come out tonight. Be safe rage hard. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.”

Mr Scott is being sued for negligence and has been accused of inciting chaos in crowds on numerous previous occasions, reports Buzzfeed.

Helen.Elfer11 November 2021 17:181636648871Communications broke down at festival say firefighters

Multiple issues with medical and security comms at the event have been flagged by the Houston Firefighters Union.

Firefighters say they were not given radios to communicate with medics, only a list of cell phone numbers â€" but service was almost non-existent at that time, NewsNation correspondent Brian Entin reports.

The Union President said emergency personnel communicating in that way is unprecedented.

Helen.Elfer11 November 2021 16:411636647589Concert-goers traumatised after witnessing Astroworld crush

Astroworld attendee Bryan Espinoza says he has been unable to sleep since witnessing the tragedy unfold at the festival on Friday.

He told CNN that he feared for his life during a crowd surge at the music festival that killed eight people died and injured dozens more.

“I saw people screaming in front of my face, just trying to fight for their lives, basically. Everyone’s life was in danger and I just saw people passed out, bodies on the floor, just a lot of stuff you don’t see on a daily basis,” said Mr Espinoza. “At one point I thought I wasn’t going to make it.”

Helen.Elfer11 November 2021 16:191636645568Brothers say the festival was ‘chaos’ from the moment they entered

Two brothers, Jonathan and Bryan Espinoza told CNN that they witnessed "chaos" from the moment they entered the Astroworld Festival.

"While we’re walking to get our ticket scanned in, fans immediately bust down a fence," Jonathan Espinoza told CNN’s John Berman on Thursday.

"You have cops trying to stop them, but I mean, there’s about 50 people that just break the fence down (and) immediately start running."

"When you start off poorly, I don’t get how you would expect to finish with success," he added.

Eleanor Sly11 November 2021 15:461636642295Man paralysed at 2017 Travis Scott concert feels ‘tremendous sadness’

Kyle Green, who was paralysed having attended a Travis Scott concert in 2017, said that he is feeling “tremendous sadness” following events at Astroworld.

“[Kyle] was so upset and saddened by this horrible human tragedy,” Mr Green’s attorney Howard Hershenhorn told Fox News.

“He was even angry because this all could’ve been prevented if Travis Scott had learned his lessons from the past, which unfortunately he did not. And so the sadness has been mixed with a great deal of anger because Kyle is fully familiar with Travis’ past escapades. Travis could have avoided this senseless tragedy.”

Eleanor Sly11 November 2021 14:511636638602Astroworld: Police chief walks back claim security guard was injected with drugs at Travis Scott festival

Houston Police Chief Troy Finner has walked back his claim that a security guard may have been injected with drugs at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival, revealing the officer’s account was “not consistent” with that version of events.

The police chief held a press conference on Wednesday afternoon to give an update on the tragedy which left eight people dead and two more fighting for their lives in intensive care.

“If you can remember, members of the medical team in the medical tent had said that a male security guard had come in and said that somebody had pricked his neck,” he said.

Rachel Sharp reports:

Eleanor Sly11 November 2021 13:501636636802Other crowd surges in recent times

24 July 2010

A crowd surge at the Love Parade music festival in Germany resulted in the deaths of 21 people with more than 650 others injured.

22 November 2010

A festival in Cambodia resulted in the deaths of 347 people following a crush.

24 September 2015

A crowd surge during the annual hajj in Saudia Arabia killed 2,411 Muslim pilgrims.

30 April 2021

Earlier this year, 45 people died at a stampede at the annual Mount Meron pilgrimage in Israel.

Eleanor Sly11 November 2021 13:20

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