Astroworld Festival Death Toll Rises to 9
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The Astroworld Festival tragedy in Texas, US saw an increase in its death toll after a university student passed away due to injuries.
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An ambulance is seen in the crowd during the Astroworld music festival in Houston, Texas, US (Credit: Reuters)
A 22-year-old university student caught up in the crowd that rushed the stage at the Astroworld Festival in Texas last week has died of injuries she sustained during the stampede, her family said Thursday, which raised the death toll from the incident to nine.
Bharti Shahani, who attended the Travis Scott concert at the rap concert with her sister and cousin, had been comatose and on a ventilator since the tragedy, which left hundreds of people injured, took place in Houston on Friday.
"I want my baby back," her crying mother Karishma Shahani told journalists. "I won't be able to live without her."
"I think she lost oxygen for 10 minutes one time and seven minutes at another time," the cousin, Mohit Bellani, told a local TV station.
The concert saw around 50,000 people jammed, dancing, and signing as a stampede was going on in what is known as the 'moshpit' - the area in front of the stage at a concert.
The victims were crushed against the barriers, rendered unable to breathe nor move as the crowd pressed toward the stage.
People started to fall out, become unconscious, and it created additional panic. The attendees fell on the floor, and others fell on top of them, crushing those beneath, and the density of the crowd before the stage made it incredibly difficult to evacuate those affected in the stampede.
"There were, like, layers of bodies on the ground, like two people thick. We were fighting to come up to the top and breathe to stay alive," Bellani said.
At least 60 lawsuits have been announced against Scott and fellow artist Drake, who took joined the concert in its final 15 minutes, well after an emergency had been declared.
