Witnesses to the deadly crush outside the O2 Academy Brixton last Thursday have insisted many fans in the crowd outside had tickets, rejecting reports of a ticketless mob storming the venue.
After the death of 33-year-old Rebecca Ikumelo was announced on Saturday, fans criticised the security and organisation at the event.
One concertgoer claimed fans outside were “kettled” into a confined space by security guards. “They endangered our lives, they endangered my life. No one’s going to kettle me in,” said Isioma Daniel, 41.
The gig, the third of three by the Nigerian artist Asake at the south London venue, was stopped after approximately 10 minutes.
A man apparently from the singer’s crew announced on stage: “We have stopped the show because they breached the door. You have got 3,000 people [who] have broken the door outside and because of security, police have asked us to close the show. We apologise to you. This is nothing to do with us.”
After the news emerged of the death of Ikumelo, a mother of two, Asake said he was “devastated” and “overwhelmed with grief”. He said: “My sincerest condolences to her loved ones at this time. Let us please keep her family in our prayers. I have spoken to them and will continue to do so.”The Metropolitan police have launched an investigation. Two other women, aged 21 and 23, are in hospital in a critical condition.
Police were called to the event at about 9.35pm after reports that a large number of people were trying to force entry. The Met said officers found several people with “injuries believed to have been caused by crushing”.
Asake fans told the Guardian that upon arriving at the event they were directed around the back of the venue and then into a side alley, with no one checking their tickets as they joined the crowd.
“To the right of me was the wall of the building and to the left was a bank of cars, parked. So we are hemmed in. There was no cordoning, no barricades, no staff at all except for two men at the top of the queue,” said Daniel.
At about 8.30pm, she said, “we had our tickets ready, and then suddenly the crowd just surged. I think whatever was happening up the front, I couldn’t see clearly, someone must have been frustrated and started pushing. I started to get suffocated because everyone started moving and pushing and we were already hemmed in.”
She added that it was extremely cold on Thursday night, with the temperature well below zero, suggesting ticketless fans were unlikely to have queued for such a long time in freezing conditions.
Some time later, as the crowd tried to push towards the front steps of the venue, she said, “the security moved the barricades there to hem us in again so there was no exit out on to the streets without jumping over a barricade”.