A suspected stampede has left eight people injured, four of them critically, during a concert by singer Asake at the O2 Academy venue in Brixton, south London, on Thursday night.
Police arrived at the event at around 21.30 (local time) during artist Asake’s concert, held at one of London’s largest venues, and found a crowd of people trying to force their way inside the venue and several people injured due to the alleged crush.
Images shared on social media show a large crowd at the gates of the venue amid shouting and scuffling. Followers on Twitter claim that around 1,000 of them did not have tickets, as reported by the BBC.
The media has given testimony of finding metal bars scattered on the pavement and the existence of several agents still in the early hours of Friday morning.
«This is an extremely disturbing incident that has left four people seriously ill in hospital. My thoughts and prayers are with them and their families,» said London Metropolitan Police commander Ade Adelekan, who has called for the launch of «as thorough and forensic an investigation as necessary» due to the incident, for which no arrests have yet been made.
Ahmed Ololade, known artistically as Asake, is a Nigerian singer and songwriter, who is touring his debut album ‘Mr. Money With The Vibe’. The concert was interrupted ten minutes into the concert when the artist himself announced the incident to the audience.
«We’ve stopped the show, because they broke the door. We have 3,000 people who have broken the outer door and, for safety, the police have asked us to close the show. We apologize to you. This has nothing to do with us,» one of the event’s organizers said, according to ‘The Guardian’.
Asake has shared this Friday morning a statement on its official social networks where he expressed his best wishes to those affected, whom he hoped to be able to contact personally, and has assured not yet have the «full report from the administration» that explains the «interruption at the entrance» of the Brixton hall.
