[gtranslate]
News

Astroworld death toll rises to 9

The number of fatalities from the Astroworld festival has climbed to 9 following the death of a critically injured college student.

Bharti Shahani, a 22-year-old student at Texas A&M University, studying electronics systems engineering, was set to graduate next spring.

Shahani, along with hundreds of others, was critically injured during the popular Astroworld Festival, run annually by rapper Travis Scott.

9th Astroworld victim Bharti Shahani
Source- Forbes Magazine

The family’s attorney, James Lassiter announced at a recent news conference that Bharti Shahani had succumbed to her injuries on Wednesday.

The statement released on Thursday revealed that Shahani suffered massive injuries and was subsequently hospitalised at Houston Methodist Hospital.

Family members have also said that Bharti was placed on a ventilator, in order to sustain her breathing.

Her cousin, Mohit Bellani was also in attendance and has since spoken out, explaining that the pair were separated when the crowd surged forward.

“Once one person fell, people started toppling like dominos. It was like a sinkhole. People were falling on top of each other,” she said.

Chaos broke loose when rapper Travis Scott took the stage shortly after 9 pm on Friday night.

Minutes into his set the main stage was compromised by a massive influx of people and crowd surging.

Police radio traffic reveals the situation was quickly identified, however, Scott continued to play his set.

“Looks like folks are coming out of the crowd complaining of difficulty breathing, crushing-type injuries,” one official announced over the police radio around 9.21 pm.

Scott’s attorneys have said the rapper was not aware of the unfolding events and was only informed post his 1-hour long set.

A criminal investigation into the proceedings of the evening is underway.

Tragically Bharti Shahani is added to the list of the eight other victims: Rodolfo Pena, 23; Jacob Jurinek, 20; John Hilgert, 14; Brianna Rodriguez, 16; Mirza Baig, 27; Madison Dubiski, 23; Franco Patino, 21 and Axel Acosta Avila, 21.

Ezra Blount, a nine-year-old injured at the event is currently in a medically induced coma.