At least 19 people have been taken to hospital with serious injuries following a crowd crush incident at the Falls Music and Arts Festival at Lorne in Victoria.
Police say a large number of people were injured after those at the front of a crowd leaving a performance lost their footing at about 9.50pm on Friday.
Ambulance Victoria state health commander Paul Holman said paramedics and ambulances were on site, and worked with first aid providers to triage and assess more than 60 people injured in the crush.
"We transported 13 women and six men to hospital, mostly with lower limb fractures.
"Injuries included leg, rib, hip and pelvic fractures, possible spinal injuries, head and facial injuries, cuts and abrasions. Patients' ages ranged from late teens to late 20s," Mr Holman said in a statement.
"It was quite a chaotic scene and required a major response.
"While the injuries are significant, this could have been quite a tragedy and we are grateful that the outcome was not worse."
Festival organisers posted an official note on Facebook confirming the crowd crush incident just after Australian band DMA's had finished playing in the Grand Theatre tent.
They also issued a statement saying medical services were in "direct contact with relatives of any patients who have been admitted to hospital as per standard protocol".
"We have set up a communication center on site for patrons who do not have mobile reception, so they can call out to check in with family and friends, and we have an info line patroninfo@fallsfestival.com for enquiries," the statement said.
"In response to last night’s incident we have considered the egress into and out of The Grand Theatre and made some modifications to today’s event.
"The safety and wellbeing of our patrons is of paramount concern to us. Whilst a very distressing situation, we are heartened and thankful for the amazing work of our medical teams and staff who responded with such care and support to those affected and continue to do so for the remaining duration of the festival."
Eyewitness accounts reported the crush as a "stampede" with bones broken, shoes torn off and mobile phones crushed.
Adam Dean, of Ringwood, was in the crowd and told Fairfax Media one of his friends was injured.
"After DMA's there was a huge rush of people coming out and he got trampled, everyone was pushing people out - it was bad."
Mr Dean said his friend was "alright, legs got scratched up massively, reckons he basically got dragged like 10 metres over gravel from everyone trampling him. But he's all good."
Festival-goer Lucy Spry posted on the Falls Facebook site that it began when someone slipped on gravel going through a small exit with no crowd control in sight.
"Once they went down, they didn't get up quick enough, so we all started piling on top of them as the crowd just did not stop pushing.
"They couldn't see what was going on or hear us all absolutely screaming to stop pushing, so it ended up in hundreds of kids getting absolutely crushed!"
