What to Know About the Houston Astroworld Tragedy

At least 10 people were killed and hundreds more were injured at a concert in Houston after a large crowd began pushing toward the front of the stage during a performance by the hometown rapper Travis Scott.

The concert was part of the Astroworld music festival, a two-day event that began on Nov. 5. About 50,000 people were assembled there when the injuries occurred, according to the Houston Fire Department.

It appeared to be one of the deadliest crowd-control disasters at a concert in the United States in many years, recalling the 1979 crush outside the doors of a show by the Who in Cincinnati that left 11 people dead and stunned the nation.

Here’s what we know so far.

The cause of the surge remains under investigation.

It was still unclear what prompted the crowd to surge forward, but witnesses described a chaotic scene before and during the concert, with many people in the back trying to rush to the front. One concertgoer, Neema Djavadzadeh, said the event was “hectic from the beginning.”

“I got there around 3 and saw people already struggling to stand straight,” she said. “There was a lot of mob mentality going on, people willing to do whatever to be in line for merch, food, shows, you name it. A lot of fights broke out throughout the day.”

The crush of the crowd was so intense that it left no room to move, some attendees said.

“You can literally jump in the air and you’re there in the air — it’s like if your hands are up, your hands are staying up,” Vanessa Johnson, 20, said.