(AP) Several people died and numerous others were injured in what officials described as a surge of the crowd at the music festival while Scott was performing.

Officials declared a “mass casualty incident” just after 9 p.m. Friday during the festival where an estimated 50,000 people were in attendance, Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña told reporters at a news conference.

“The crowd began to compress towards the front of the stage, and that caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries,” the fire chief said. “People began to fall out, become unconscious, and it created additional panic.”

The show was called off shortly thereafter. The fire chief said “scores of individuals” were injured.

Officials transported 17 people to hospitals, including 11 who were in cardiac arrest, Peña said. It wasn’t clear whether all eight who died were among the 17 that had been transported to hospitals. Many people were also treated at the scene at NRG Park, where a field hospital had been set up. About 300 people were examined at that site throughout the day, he said.

Astroworld is a two-day music festival that was scheduled to take place Friday and Saturday in Houston. The event was sold out, according to the Astroworld website. Saturday’s performances have been canceled.

Smells like Clowns

NYT https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/11/06/us/houston-astroworld-festival

AP https://apnews.com/article/travis-scott-astroworld-dead-injured-crowd-surge-6c697502318c50ba4b57aa1c6f71f9bf

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W_njKnR6Q0

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — An oil tanker exploded near Sierra Leone’s capital, killing at least 92 people and severely injuring dozens of others after large crowds gathered to collect leaking fuel, officials and witnesses said Saturday.

The explosion took place late Friday after a bus struck the tanker in Wellington, a suburb just to the east of Freetown.

The mortuary at Connaught Hospital reported 92 bodies had been brought in by Saturday morning. About 30 severely burned victims were not expected to survive, according to Foday Musa, a staff member in the intensive care unit.

Injured people whose clothes had burned off in the fire that followed the explosion lay naked on stretchers as nurses attended to them Saturday. Hundreds of people milled outside the main gates of the mortuary and near the hospital’s main entrance, waiting for word of their loved ones.

It was not immediately known how many people were undergoing treatment for burns because patients were taken to hospitals and clinics across the metropolitan area.

Video obtained by The Associated Press of the explosion’s aftermath showed a giant fireball burning in the night sky as some survivors with severe burns cried out in pain. Charred remains of the victims lay strewn at the scene awaiting transport to mortuaries.

https://apnews.com/article/business-africa-explosions-sierra-leone-julius-maada-bio-face14a7564fa650a8ae0a73ce2ece3f

>>14936690

>Officials transported 17 people to hospitals

>>14936826

notable

>>14936842

The first Chinese intelligence officer to stand trial in the U.S. has been convicted.

Yanjun Xu, a spy for the Chinese Ministry of State Security was convicted for attempting to steal trade secrets from American aviation firms and from General Electric. Court documents state that Xu used aliases to try to steal proprietary technology as far back as 2013.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/chinese-spy-convicted-steal-us-trade-secrets