A man who witnesses the crush at the O2 that left eight people in hospital, three critically ill, says the crowd began to push forward when people were frustrated that tickets resold by touts refused to scan. Solomon Smith had gone to see the Afrobeats artist Asake at the venue on Thursday night.
He told The Mirror: "There was talk that people just rushed the door just trying to get in, but that wasn't the case. What happened was the resellers were selling the tickets and then a lot of the time the tickets would scan and scan.
"It didn't matter how many times it was printed it kept getting scanned. I don't think the O2 are at fault, it's these people that resell tickets online.
"I just think once they capped the numbers a lot of people were frustrated saying 'it's too much, no more people can come in'.
"I think that is where everybody got frustrated. When they said no more people could come in, people were like 'huh I got my ticket, how come we can't get in?'
"'I bought my ticket and why are you saying I can't come in?' That is what started everybody off.
"I think it was controlled well you know and they weren't expecting that many people. I think it was so intense that everybody was so frustrated and they were pushing and I think more people started pushing and people were like 'why are you pushing'
"You know it's just normal human interaction and that is literally where all the fights started to break out."
Emergency services rushed to the venue following reports of crowd trouble at 9.35pm and found "a number of people with injuries believed to have been caused by crushing".
Solomon described the scenes he witnessed in Brixton yesterday (Image: Daily Mirror/Ian Vogler)
In a statement, Commander Colin Wingrove said an “urgent investigation” was underway, and that three people remain in critical condition. He also confirmed that one person has been arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer during the incident.
Asake, who was performing at the O2, took to Instagram to say he still doesn't "have the full brief from the venue management" about what led to the incident that caused his gig to be abandoned, and he is in the process of reaching out to individuals injured.
Solomon said: "The main thing is that the police were not at fault, and the security was not at fault. They didn't have the capacity to deal with the extra thousands of people.
"The resellers are at fault - they duplicated hundreds of tickets. The only people at fault are the people who are reselling and reprinting tickets which is what is putting people in danger.
"We hope that Asake can come back and do a safe show in London."
Commander Ade Adelekan, Met Police Gold Commander, said: “This is an extremely upsetting incident which has left four people critically ill in hospital. My thoughts and prayers are with them and their families.
“A police investigation has been launched, and it will be as thorough and as forensic as necessary to establish exactly what happened last night.
"The scene will be examined by specialist officers, CCTV will be viewed, every witness that we can make contact with will be spoken to and all other lines of enquiry will be followed.
“Officers are remaining in the area to provide reassurance to the local community in and around Brixton. If you have any information or concerns, please speak with them.
“I am aware of a video being shared on social media. I would ask people to be sensible about what they share, and not to post material that will be upsetting to those affected by this incident. Where force has been used by police officers, those officers know they have to be accountable for their actions.
"The Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards will view all material, including Body Worn Video footage from the officers at the scene. In relation to a clip being widely shared, I can confirm that no police dogs were deployed to the location.”
Any witnesses who are yet to speak with police are asked to call 101 ref 6725/15Dec. If you have mobile phone footage that may assist police, please make contact via @MetCC on Twitter. We will provide further details about ways to share footage in due course.
The Mirror contacted the venue for a statement.
