Fights spark safety concerns at Travis Scott’s Melbourne concert

Sowaibah Hanifie
7NEWS
Rap fans have caused mayhem at Marvel Stadium with wild clashes between concertgoers and guards.

A security expert said necessary precautions weren’t taken to keep patrons safe at Travis Scott’s Melbourne concerts.

Several fights were reported at Marvel Stadium as the American rapper performed on Tuesday and Wednesday night.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Fans create chaos at Travis Scott concert

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Ticket-holders were also seen breaking barricades to enter the mosh pit.

Some people reported being trampled on and the crowd being “moments away from being complete chaos”.

Video has also emerged of a person appearing to suffer a seizure while being tackled by guards.

It has been reported five people were taken to hospital from Wednesday night’s event.

Pride Security Group director Richard Theodorakis said the safety of security guards and patrons was at risk.

“A lot of the incidents started from the second lines formed at the front and, if you look at the footage, those lines are quite dense and wide, meaning for police to have any effect, someone could just rush into that crowd and you’d never find them again,” he said.

“That gives confidence to the crowd, they know they’ve out-numbered police and security.

“Even to the early stages of moving people inside, you could see people running in and acting up almost straight away.”

Marvel Stadium said it had employed more than the usual number of security personnel for night one and increased the number again on night two. It said it would conduct a post-concert review with security contractors.

“More than 55,000 fans attended the concert’s second night. While most behaved appropriately, some were denied entry or ejected for misconduct,” Marvel Stadium said on Thursday.

“The Stadium has today become aware of concerning vision on social media showing some patrons undertaking unacceptable behaviour and a separate piece of vision involving a security guard detaining a person after they attempted to gain unauthorised access to the arena, in which medical attention was provided.

“The Stadium is currently undertaking a post-event debrief with our security contractors.”

Scott settled about 100 lawsuits in the US this week over his 2021 Astroworld festival in Houston during which 10 people — the youngest aged just 9 — were crushed.

People filed cases against the rapper and Live Nation alleging they exceeded the venue’s capacity.

Many cases remain open and some may go to trial.

Theodorakis said the previous concerts should have meant better risk management for future concerts.

“We’ve seen that happened and we probably should have learnt from that,” he said.

“Especially with the barrier use, we certainly have more heavy-duty barriers that could have kept people better divided.”

Victoria Police said there were no arrests at the concerts.

Originally published on 7NEWS

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