At least eight people died and numerous others were injured in what officials described as a surge of the crowd at the Astroworld music festival in Houston while rapper Travis Scott was performing.
It happened at the third-annual Astroworld Festival, a sold-out concert event featuring multiple acts.
The worst of the incident began around 9:15 p.m. when the crowd of approximately 50,000 concert-goers began to move toward the front of the stage, according to Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña.
"The crowd began to compress toward the front of the stage, and people began to panic", Peña said.
The view from SkyEye overhead Friday night showed the heavy police and fire department activity in the area of the event as organizers ended it early. The organizers, rapper Travis Scott and LiveNation, stopped the show when it was apparent that multiple people were hurt, according to Houston Police Chief Troy Finner.
Houston Fire Department and Harris County medics transported 23 people to hospitals, 17 of those patients were taken away during the worst of the ordeal, according to Peña, who also said CPR had to be performed on 11 of the victims. HFD had 55 units in-service for the festival, Peña said.
Festival founder Travis Scott, a rapper and Missouri City native, was joined on stage by Drake in a surprise appearance as the crowd surged.
HPD Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite was on-duty at the festival along with 367 police officers and 241 security officers. He gave his first-hand account during an early morning press conference.
"Once we started having the mass casualty incident, they were starting CPR on several people, and it happened all at once," Satterwhite said. "It seemed like it happened over the course of just a few minutes. Suddenly, we had several people down on the ground experiencing some type of cardiac arrest or some type of medical episode."
Medical transports were already at the park for the multi-day festival, but staff was quickly overwhelmed with injured people, authorities said.
Investigators were dispatched to hospitals Saturday morning in an attempt to identify the victims. The Harris County Medical Examiner's Office will determine how the eight people died.
The rest of the weekend's planned performances were canceled, and the area is now a crime scene as investigators work to find out what exactly happened.
"At some point, the show was stopped when the crowd was surging," Finner said as he noted the event's promoters were cooperating with investigators.
Read more at ABC13.com
WATCH: City and county leaders give update on Astroworld Festival mass casualty incident