The stampede happened as fans rushed from one headline act - DMA's in the large Grand Theatre tent - to see another - London Grammar on the Valley Stage - just before 10pm. Victoria Police said the festival-goers were injured after some crowd members at the front of the throng of people leaving the tent lost their footing. Nineteen-year-old Olivia Jones was caught in the middle of the tent when the crush began. 'I thought I was going to die' Olivia Jones, 19, was caught in the middle of the tent when people started to fall down.

Ms Jones says the crowd crush was like a "domino effect" and she was pushed to the ground with about five people on top of her. "I thought I was going to die," she said. "There were people lying there, unconscious, not moving. I thought the people around me were dead." After gasping for air and begging for help for about four minutes, Ms Jones said she was eventually pulled out of the mass of bodies by her arms. She was rushed to Lorne Community Hospital and treated for bruising to her legs, a deep cut to her knee and bruised ribs. "I'm surprised no one died," she said. "They should have more security and bigger exits."

Olivia Jones' injured leg as a result of the stampede at Falls Festival, Lorne on Friday night. 'We were just like dominoes, people fell and fell' Ruby Campbell, also 19, said she was just behind the two girls who were the first ones to fall. She said it was so packed inside that she felt she could have been "carried out in a sea of people without using her legs".

"Then two people tripped in front of me, I didn't want to stand on them, but the crowd was pushing, so I just fell," Ms Campbell said. "We were just like dominoes, people fell and fell." She said all she could hear was screams around her of people saying, "I am dying, I am dying". "By this stage, I was just clawing at anyone and anything to get out, but it was getting heavier and heavier," Ms Campbell said. "I remember thinking 'stay calm and breathe normally' and ....then I heard a snap underneath me. I was on top of a person and their bone snapped.

"There were 10 people on top of me ...I felt the air get squished out of me. I just sort of accepted it. I just wanted it to be over. You'd almost die than have to go through that." Ruby Campbell, 19, said she heard people screaming, 'I am dying' and bones snapping as she lay under a pile of bodies. Facebook Credit:Facebook 'Frightening' footage The Australian Medical Association's president Dr Michael Gannon described footage of crowds at the festival as "frightening". He said he was amazed people did not suffer more serious injuries in the stampede, and that no one was killed. "It is quite frightening vision ...just the sheer volume of people and reports of people trying to leave through a narrow exit," he said. "There is the possibility of the crush, and we know from similar incidents at sporting facilities and music festivals in the past that people can be irreversibly injured."

Ambulance Victoria's State Health Commander Paul Holman said paramedics and first aid providers had helped more than 60 people injured in the crush, with patients aged from their late teens to late 20s. "It was quite a chaotic scene and required a major response," he said. Later that night A handful of Salvos volunteers were already set up next to the tent just when DMA's finished their set and the crowd started to surge out the entrance. "I just saw someone on the ground and so we provided assistance by blocking them, so people couldn't walk on them," Major Chris Pitman-Jones said. "We provided some crowd control until the festival staff got there."

Paramedics and nurses who are patrons actually stopped by to give assistance and then the Salvation Army volunteers stayed to provide emotional assistance. The tent was closed once everyone was evacuated. There were still four acts scheduled to play in the tent, but they were cancelled. Performances on the open-air Main Stage theatre at the other end of the festival grounds continued as scheduled into the night. Salvation Army volunteers turned their tiny tent into an emergency triage. "We have an amazing team who set up an emergency triage in conjunction with the hospital, because one of our volunteers is the CEO of Lorne Hospital," Major Pitman-Jones said.

"Our volunteers are a combination of nurses and community workers. They helped to care for the patients by cleaning their wounds, bandaging them and prioritising them as to who needed to get into hospital." Response praised One festival-goer, Nick Moriarty, 22, who hurt his leg and ankle in the crush, said he was happy with how organisers had responded. "It was a freak accident," Mr Moriarty said. "There is no reason to be saying they did a bad job, because they didn't. The only bad thing is they only had two exits for such a big crowd. But now they have opened the sides."

Mr Holman said crowd crushes at overseas festivals had caused multiple injuries and it had been a relief that no one was critically injured. He said the Falls Festival was one of the better organised festivals with health workers on site when the crush happened and few drug or alcohol related incidents at the festival. "This event demonstrates the value of having a good medical and emergency plan," he said. Code Brown Barwon Health said 15 people were taken to University Hospital in Geelong, the rest were taken to the Lorne Community Hospital.

Seven people were discharged from University Hospital by 1pm on Saturday, and the rest were in a stable condition. Three more are expected to be discharged later in the afternoon. One young woman with crutches and a leg brace declined to speak to the media while waiting to be discharged outside emergency. A nurse helped her from a wheelchair into a waiting Uber, before she was ferried home. Shaken, anxious parents were coming and going from the hospital over the course of Saturday morning and early afternoon. A Barwon Health spokeswoman said the number of people injured had prompted the hospital to issue a Code Brown, which is used when an external disaster impacts how the hospital can cope with patients.