At least 36 concertgoers in attendance at Swedish disc jockey Avicii's electronic dance music show at TD Garden in Boston were hospitalized Wednesday night, due primarily to drug and alcohol abuse.
Those hospitalized ranged mostly in age from 16 to 19 ABC News reports. Hospital officials report that all of the people hospitalized are being treated for non-life-threatening injuries; however, signs of illicit drug use were apparent. Use of the popular club drug known as "Molly", a form of ecstasy, is also suspected.
In addition to the 36 people taken to area hospitals, over 50 people were treated at the scene as well. The concert scene quickly transformed into a medical emergency when medical emergency services declared a Phase 2 MCI, indicating that about 30 people needed to be taken to hospitals, according to The Boston Globe.
Mike Santostefano, 19, told reporters that he saw three young women being carried from the concert on stretchers as well as "a lot of people who couldn't handle themselves. People who don't do drugs come here and do drugs."
Wednesday night's concert marked the opening of Avicii's tour in the Eastern United States and Europe, which is scheduled to end in Spain in September. The incident follows an earlier incident at an Avicii concert in Toronto in May, in which 29 people were hospitalized for drug-related injuries.
While some people are downplaying the incident, such as Mike Mogavero, 18, who said, "I bet there were rock and roll concerts in the '70s that were more out of hand than this," others, like Steve Watkins, 28, find it a shame that, "people can't just come to a concert like this and enjoy the music for what it is."
The Swedish Grammy-nominated DJ Avicii, whose real name is Tim Bergling, tweeted his thoughts for everyone affected after the show.
Just hearing the awful news abt tonight. Its a terrible thing, I rly hope everyone is ok! My thoughts go to those affected & their families.
— Tim Bergling (@Avicii) June 26, 2014
image courtesy of INFPhoto.com