Travis Scott has taken to Instagram Stories after at least eight people were crushed to death and hundreds were injured during his concert at Astroworld Festival on Friday, saying he was working to help the families of the deceased.
"My fans really mean the world to me and I always want to leave them with a positive experience. Anytime I can make out anything that's going on, ya know, I stop the show and you know, help them get the help they need. I could just never imagine the severity of the situation," the visibly distraught rapper said.
A number of videos making the rounds on social media show concertgoers chanting "stop the show", as Scott continues performing. He did halt his performance briefly several times in order to ask the security guards to help people in the crowd. However, it's unclear from the videos if the rapper had realised what was happening.
"To the ones that was lost last night, we're working right now to ID the families so we can help assist them through this tough time. I'm honestly just devastated… I could never imagine anything like this just happening," Travis said in a series of black-and-white Instagram Stories.
He reiterated that he was working closely with local authorities investigating what happened at the fatal festival.
"We've been working closely with everyone to just try to get to the bottom of this. If you have any information please just contact the local authorities," he added, vowing to keep his fans in the loop with the investigation. "Everybody just continue to keep your prayers."
The rapper's video statement came shortly after Houston Chief of Police Troy Finner told a press conference Saturday that a crazed man had injected at least one person with opioids during the chaos.
"One of the narratives was that some individual was injecting other people with drugs. We do have a report of a security officer, according to the medical staff that was out and treated him last night. He was reaching over to restrain or grab a citizen and he felt a prick in his neck. He went unconscious, they administered Narcan," he said.
While it's unclear what drug could've been injected into the guard, Narcan is used for the treatment of a known or suspected opioid overdose emergency.
"He was revived, and medical staff did notice a prick similar to a prick you would get if somebody was trying to inject," Finner added.
There's no word of festival-goers being injected with any substance so far.
Police have confirmed eight deaths at the Astroworld Festival, which is run by Scott and held annually in Houston, Texas. According to authorities, the concert crowd surged toward the stage during the rapper's performance, squeezing them together so tightly that they could not breathe or move. At least 11 people were later hospitalised after suffering heart attacks.