LAHORE: A surge of fans pushing toward the stage while rap star Travis Scott performed at a music festival in Houston city of Texas state named last week left eight people dead and hundreds injured.
The dead also include Pakistan-origin Danish Baig, a 27-year-old man who was a baby when he moved with his family from Karachi to Texas, who died trying to save his fiance, Olivia Swingle, from being crushed.
Baig was buried in Colleyville city of the state on Sunday after a funeral. Although the cause of death remains under investigation, his family said Baig died after being trampled.
Baig’s heroic final actions were remembered on Facebook by his brother, who said the man died trying to save his fiance from being crushed.
“My brother Danish Baig [was] a beautiful soul whose smile would light up the room and put everyone before himself. Last night he showed his courageous act to save my sister in law/his fiancé from those horrendous things that were being done.
I am lost of words and in true trauma from this event. I was there and I wasn’t able to save my brother,” Basil Mirza Baig wrote on Facebook.
Baig and his fiance, Swingle, 25, both worked at AT&T telecommunications company, his family told People magazine. Baig worked as a company district manager and travelled to the concert from Dallas.
Baig’s brother told reporters that singer Travis Scott, organiser Live Nation Entertainment. and “anybody who was affiliated with the Astroworld festival, they should be held liable and accountable for everything. They have blood on their hands.”
The victims were crushed in a surge of fans near the stage at NRG Park, the venue of the event, at around 9:30 pm local time, with some unable to breathe and others trampled underfoot. Hundreds of others in the sellout crowd of 50,000 were injured throughout the day.
Fans described a chaotic scene after a steady escalation of disruptive behaviour over several hours.
Officials said Saturday that 528 Houston Police Department officers provided security at the event and an additional 755 private security officers were provided by the entertainment company.
Friday’s horror brought an early end to what was supposed to be a two-day event, as Saturday’s portion was cancelled.
