Eyewitnesses have described the pandemonium that unfolded in the crowd of rapper Travis Scott's Astroworld concert as at least eight people were killed in a sudden crushing incident.
As a timer clicked down to the start of Scott's performance in Houston, Texas on Friday night, panic and chaos erupted as the crowd surged forward.
Among the 50,000 attendees were New York couple Shawn and Ariwl Little, who said fans were squeezed so tightly together they could not breathe or move their arms, causing people to have panic attacks.
"We were in the middle of everything for about a minute and 30 seconds, but that minute and 30 seconds felt like it was 20 minutes."
Mr Little said it was impossible to know if he was stepping on bodies or on the ground as they tried to escape.
Ms Little said she felt suffocated when people around her pushed into her chest.
"Bodies [were] just going past us unconscious," she said.
Police investigate apparent needle spiking in crowd
All of the eight people who died were aged under 30.
The youngest victim was 14 years old. Hundreds more people were injured.
City Police Chief Troy Finner said his department had opened a criminal investigation by homicide and narcotics detectives after unconfirmed reports someone in the audience "was injecting other people with drugs".
One report involved a security officer "who felt a prick in his neck" as he was trying to restrain or grab someone and then fell unconscious, only to be revived with a dose of the opioid antidote NARCAN, Chief Finner said.
He said medical staff also noticed what appeared to be a needle mark on the officer's neck.
It was not clear whether authorities suspected such an episode played a role in the crowd surge, but Chief Finner said police were "going to get down to the bottom of it."
Concertgoer Niaara Goods said an "energy took over" as soon as Scott appeared on stage on the first day of the two-day festival.
Ms Goods said she was so desperate to get out that she bit a man on the shoulder to get him to move.
Nick Johnson, a high school senior from the Houston area, said he felt helpless during the stampede as people began falling on each other and it started to feel like "100 degrees".
"Everyone was passing out around you, and everyone was trying to help each other," he said.
"But you just couldn't move. You couldn't do anything. You can't even pick your arms up.
"It just got worse and worse."
Freelance photographer Amy Harris described an "aggressive" crowd atmosphere throughout the day, as waves of fans broke through stage barricades into prohibited areas.
"It was definitely the most chaotic festival environment that I've been in," Ms Harris said.
In a social media video, the rapper was seen stopping the concert at one point and asking for aid for someone in the audience.
"Security, somebody help real quick," he said.
Moments later, the show continued.
In a tweet posted Saturday, Scott said he was "absolutely devastated by what took place last night" and pledged to work to "heal and support the families in need."
Texas County judge Lina Hidalgo is leading the investigation into security and crowd control at the event.
Judge Hidalgo called the disaster "a tragedy on many different levels" and said it was too early to draw conclusions about what went wrong.
"It may well be that this tragedy is the result of unpredictable events, of circumstances coming together that couldn't possibly have been avoided," she said.
The 29-year-old rapper founded the Astroworld Festival in 2019 and has a three-year-old daughter with Kylie Jenner.
Real name Jacques Bermon Webster II, Scott rose to fame in the early 2010s for his unique rap style.
Astroworld is the name of his critically acclaimed third studio album, which he released in 2018.
Sicko Mode, featuring Canadian rapper Drake, was Scott's first number one single on the US Billboard Hot 100.
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