Astroworld death toll rises to nine as 22-year-old student dies after five days in ICU

A 22-year-old student has died after sustaining serious injuries during the deadly crowd surge at Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival.

As reported by The Washington Post, Bharti Shahani, a Texas A&M student, succumbed to her injuries on Wednesday, November 10, taking the Astroworld death toll to nine.

Shahani's family confirmed the tragic news at a press conference on Thursday as they called for "justice" for her and the festival's other young victims, Independent reports.

Per Rolling Stone, Shahani's father, Bhagu Shahani, said at the press conference: "She was like an angel to us. She was the head of the family, she was a very nice girl. Always calm, always listened. She had a bright future."

"Only thing I’ll request, to the Houstonians, to please, please make sure that she gets justice. And I don’t want somebody else’s daughter to go like this."

As reported by Houston's ABC affiliate, Shahani had shown no signs of brain activity and had been placed on a ventilator at Houston Methodist Hospital after getting caught in the stampede on Friday, November 5.

With her cousin, Mohit Bellani, there to witness her distress, Shahani reportedly suffered several heart attacks.

Bellani recalled: "I think she lost oxygen for 10 minutes one time and seven minutes at another time. So her brain stem was swollen to like 90 percent almost."

Attorney James Lassiter has since acknowledged a video showing a young concertgoer on a gurney being dropped while she was being taken away by medics. He confirmed that Shahani was the person on the gurney.

Per the Independent, he said: "There have been a lot of questions, and I think it's common knowledge, but there was a video going around that most people have seen of a young lady falling from a gurney as they were trying to get her out there - evacuate her. That was Bharti Shahani."

Eight other people died at the concert, with the victim's ages ranging from 14 to 27: Mirza Baig, 27, Rodolfo Peña, 23, Madison Dubiski, 23, Franco Patino, 21, Axel Acosta Avila, 21, Jacob Jurinek, 20, Brianna Rodriguez, 16, and John Hilgert, 14.

Our thoughts are with the victims' loved ones at this difficult time.

Featured image credit: Sipa US / Alamy