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Monday 8 November 2021

Travis Scott stampede receives global media coverage. But what really happened?

At least two investigations, one of them criminal, were under way yesterday into a deadly stampede during rap star Travis Scott's Astroworld music festival that killed at least eight people and injured dozens in Houston.

Officials in Houston said autopsies on Friday's victims were being performed as soon as possible so their bodies could be returned to their families. 

The dead were young, Houston mayor Sylvester Turner told reporters at the weekend; two were aged 14 and 16, two were 21, another two were 23, with a seventh aged 27.

Harris County judge Lina Hildago called for an "objective, independent" investigation into the tragedy, as she spoke about the rap festival being attended by 50,000 fans when the stampede took place.

"Perhaps the plans were inadequate. Perhaps the plans were good but they weren't followed," Hildago said.

"The families of those who died, everybody affected, deserve answers."
In a 90-second video released on Twitter on Saturday, Scott said that while on stage, "I could just not imagine the severity of the situation". He described himself as "absolutely devastated" by the incident.

Houston city police chief Troy Finner said his department had opened a criminal investigation, with homicide and narcotics detectives following up on reports that somebody in the audience had been injecting people with drugs.