Death toll of US Houston concert stampede rises to 9

HOUSTON - Bharti Shahani, one of the injured people during Astroworld Musical Festival stampede in Houston, south central US state Texas, died on Wednesday night, bringing the death toll of the tragedy to nine, the attorney of Shahani's family announced on Thursday.

The 22-year-old Texas A&M University senior succumbed to her critical injuries after having being hospitalized after the deadly concert on Friday, said the attorney.

She showed no brain activity shortly after her hospitalization, according to a report from local media outlet ABC13.

Shahani, her sister Namrata Shahani and her cousin Mohit Bellani went to the concert together, but lost each other when the crowd surged, said the report.

"Once one person fell, people started toppling like dominos. It was like a sinkhole. People were falling on top of each other," Bellani said. "There were like layers of bodies on the ground, like two people thick. We were fighting to come up to the top and breathe to stay alive."

Bharti has been studying electronics systems engineering at her university, and is set to graduate in the spring.

Dozens of people were injured in the stampede at the music festival. A 9-year-old child was seriously injured and has been in a medically induced coma for nearly a week, his family said.

The tragedy occurred just after 9 p.m. local time (0300 GMT on Saturday) as rapper Travis Scott was on stage at the sold-out outdoor music festival with about 50,000 attendees.

A CNN report said as of Wednesday, at least 58 lawsuits have been filed in civil court on behalf of the Astroworld attendees.

An investigation into the stampede is now underway.