Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival goer says slow security checks made crowd 'anxious & angry' before fatal stampede

A FESTIVAL goer at Travis Scott's Astroworld claims slow security checks made the crowd "anxious and angry" before the fatal stampede.

Reality star Washington Ho from House of Ho was in the queue to get in and witnessed the gates getting stormed as he alleged police lost control of the crowds.

Washington and his wife Leslie had VIP tickets and were trying to get to their spot right next to the stage when felt like they were being "herded like cattle."

He said: "There was like a single file line. It was just like it felt like a herd of cattle trying to fight through this little, like probably eight foot long gate.

"So imagine trying to get like 10,000 people trying to get through a little gate who all want to see you know, Travis Scott.

"And of course, they said there was some guest stars and people started thinking it was Drake or Kanye, so it got even crazier.

"And by the time my wife and I got closer to the gate, we wanted to turn it around because we were like, This is too crazy. We're standing there for probably I felt like forever but I think it was a good like hour.

He said the security guard was letting "one person per minute" before cops intervened.

"Everyone just started getting really anxious and angry and started pushing, shoving and then by the time me and my wife wanted to turn around the cops like pulled out their tasers.

"I pulled Leslie back, she almost got tased. We were just getting crushed.

Read our Travis Scott Astroworld Festival live blog for the very latest news and updates…

He said that crowd became aware that the police didn't have guns with people shouting "the cops don't have guns" before the stampede began and they charged through the gates.

"People just rushed and the cops had no control. Me and my wife were like the cops had no power. They had no police power.

"They had no guns. It's crazy, they had these little like electric taser things and when people found that out they were just like f*ck it.

"So everybody just busted through the gates. And then you know if you didn't like get out of the way you would have gotten trampled. "

"I've been to concerts all my life, but this was definitely the worst poorly managed, disorganized concert. It was a very bad representation of Houston and being from here."

'NO POLICE POWER'

According to Washington, the crowd had been waiting to see Travis for an hour before they started getting restless.

He added: "We didn't physically see people getting trampled but the people in the lines were talking about you know, this guy fell down and just got stepped on all over.

"You couldn't really see anything because your face was like, hugged up against the back of somebody else. Unless you were like, six foot five and it was just no one could see anything."

Travis Scott reportedly stopped a number of times during his 75-minute performance and begged security workers to help as he witnessed the tragedy ensue.

'BUSTED THROUGH THE GATES'

Around 50,000 fans had shown up for the two-day event, which sold out within an hour of tickets going live in May this year.

Officials in Texas said the crowd began to "compress towards the front of the stage" at around 9.15pm, sparking panic.

Addressing a press briefing in the early hours of this morning, Houston Fire Chief Samuel Pena said: “We had at least eight confirmed fatalities today. We had scores of individuals injured at this event.”

He added that a "mass casualty incident" was triggered at 9.38pm and investigations are ongoing.

Chief Pena told reporters: "At approximately 9.15pm the crowd began to compress towards the front of the stage and that caused some panic and it started causing some injuries.

"People began to fallout, become unconscious, and it created additional panic."

'MASS CASUALTY EVENT'

Officials transported 17 people to hospitals with 11 of them in cardiac arrest andit's feared hundreds more were injured, including a child as young as 10.

The show was called off shortly after the horror crush and the second day of the event has also been cancelled.

"Our hearts are with the Astroworld Festival family tonight – especially those we lost and their loved ones," organizers of the event wrote on their social media pages.

"We are focused on supporting local officials," they added.

A large number of police and fire fighters were scrambled to the area of the event on Friday night.

Drake had joined Scott on-stage at the concert – which was live-streamed by Apple Music.

The rapper's pregnant girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, was also watching his set – sharing backstage videos and clips of the crowd on Instagram before the tragedy.

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