Astroworld attendee says concert turned into a 'fight for survival' amid deadly crowd surge

• A concertgoer at the deadly Astroworld festival told CNN that the chaos that ensued turned into a "fight for survival."
• "I lost all hope and thought I was going to die right there," attendee Jeffrey Schmidt said.

A concertgoer at rapper Travis Scott's Astroworld concert in Houston says that the deadly chaos that ensued at the show turned the festival into a "fight for survival."

"This was not a concert, this was a fight for survival," attendee Jeffrey Schmidt told CNN of the Friday night incident that left eight people dead and hundreds injured when a packed crowd surged toward the stage.

Fans at the sold-out show at NRG Park - which had an estimated 50,000 people in attendance - started to "compress" toward the stage during Scott's performance, officials have said.

Schmidt and his best friend Casey Wagner were among the crowd when the horrific situation unfolded.

"Me and Casey decided to try our best to make our way out of the crowd slowly. Little did we know, all hell was about to break loose. People started to pass out and fall to the ground," Schmidt told CNN.

Schmidt added, "Casey, I and other crowd members tried to hold back the crowd from trampling over them. But the force of the crowd was too powerful, and people started to topple on top of them, including Casey and I."

The friends ultimately became separated from each other and got trampled under throngs of bodies, Schmidt recalled.

"At that moment my mind went into full survival mode. All I could hear was people screaming and crying for help," Schmidt said. "I lost all hope and thought I was going to die right there because I could not get my legs out. I fought for my life."

He continued, "I thought I was never going to see my best friend again, life did not feel real."

Schmidt managed to make his way out of the panicked crowd and ran to law enforcement officers, who he said did not initially take him seriously.

He was later reunited with his pal.

"I witnessed multiple people unconscious and unable to breathe, as people under me were crying for my help," Schmidt said. "But I physically could not help. That is what traumatized me the most, that I could not help the people around me. I felt heartbroken for them and their families."

Scott continued performing for more than 30 minutes after police declared the festival to be a mass casualty event.

Authorities have launched a criminal investigation into the tragedy.