Tributes have begun pouring in for victims of the Astroworld music festival mass casualty incident that has left at least eight people dead and hundreds needing treatment.

“#Astroworld event has been cancelled for Saturday! Please keep the eight victims and the hundreds injured in your thoughts and prayers,” Houston Office for Emergency Management wrote on Twitter.

Another Twitter user added: “My heart is breaking for the people that lost their lives, were hurt, or traumatized at Astroworld. With all the shows and events I’ve attended, I can’t even imagine something like that happening to me or my friends.”

Travis Scott is yet to make a public statement following eight deaths at the third annual Astroworld music festival.

Performances from artists Drake, 21 Savage and SZA marked the first day of the celebration before huge crowd surges around 9pm brought the show to a close as a mass casualty incident was declared.

In 2019, three people were trampled and hospitalised as thousands rushed to get into the festival that takes place in Scott’s hometown.

Our reporter Ellie Harrison has the full report below:

Videos have been circulating on social media of ‘hundreds’ of fans running past security into the festival around 2pm with reports from ABC13 Houston saying people were trampled on as fans tried to enter.

According to officials, the crowd of around 50,000 attendees began to rush towards the stage during Travis Scott’s set around 9pm on Friday evening.

The Houston Chronicle reported that Scott stopped multiple times during his 75-minute performance, having spotted fans in distress and requested that security check on their wellbeing and escort them safely out of the crowd.

Our reporter Celine Wadhera has the full report below:

NRG Park where the Astroworld festival is held has announced that the event is cancelled following the mass casualty incident on day one that left eight people dead and scores injured.

Houston fire chief Samuel Pena told reporters that a patient as young as 10-years-old was treated in the mass casualty incident that led to eight people being killed at the Astroworld music festival.

Houston Police has confirmed that a missing persons information site has been set up to help families looking for loved ones who were at the festival.

“A command post for information on missing persons at #astroworld has been set up at 8686 Kirby (Kirby at 610 Loop) – the Wyndham Hotel. If you need information on a loved one that has not been located please proceed to that address,” it wrote on Twitter.

Houston police chief Larry Satterwhite was near the front when the tragedy unfolded.

“It seems like it happened with just over the course of a few minutes – suddenly we had several people down on the ground experiencing some type of cardiac arrest or some type of medical episode,” he said.

“We immediately started doing CPR.”

Officials did not immediately know what the cause of deaths was, nor had those who had died been identified.

Houston fire chief Samuel Pena confirmed that approximately 50,000 people attended the Astroworld music festival with the crowd beginning to compress toward the front of the stage at 9pm creating panic and injuries.

Mr Pena confirmed 17 patients were transferred to the hospital with 11 suffering from cardiac arrest. He confirmed that over 300 people were treated in a field hospital set up at the event.

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s blog following updates from the Astroworld music festival where at least people have died following a crowd surge.

Follow the latest updates on the incident.