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Crowd crush at Asake concert in London kills 1, seriously injures 2

December 18, 2022

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A woman has died and two others were in critical condition following a crush at a concert last week in London, police said on Saturday.

The woman, Rebecca Ikumelo, a 33-year-old London resident, died in hospital on Saturday after being injured in the crush, London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement. Two other women, a 21-year-old and a 23-year-old, were in critical condition, police said.

The crush happened on Thursday night at the O2 Academy Brixton, also known as Brixton Academy, a renowned concert venue in London where Nigerian afrobeats singer Asake performed. “A large number of people were trying to force entry” into the place, police said. Videos showed a crowd pouring into a narrow entrance as people shouted and onlookers recorded the scene.

First responders performed CPR and first aid. They responded shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday to reports of the crash, police said. Eight people were hospitalized with apparent injuries from the episode, police said.

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An autopsy was to be performed in Ikumelo on Sunday, police said. Chief Superintendent Colin Wingrove said in a statement that “an urgent investigation” into the episode was underway, noting that “it is still a moving and rapidly changing picture and we are working to establish the events that have led to the incident”.

Police have appealed to the 4,000 people believed to have attended the event for photo and video submissions that could help piece together the circumstances leading up to the crash. The sold-out concert hall can accommodate a maximum of nearly 5,000 people.

Ikumelo’s family said in a statement released by the Metropolitan Police that the 33-year-old is a qualified nurse and “a lovely mother of two who loved working with children. She was highly respected in the family for her care, kindness and love.

Asake, the singer, said in a statement posted on social media that he had spoken with Ikumelo’s family and was “devastated by the news” of his death.

“I’m overwhelmed with grief and never could have imagined something like this happening,” he said, adding that he and his team are “waiting for the full debriefing” of the venue and the police “to determine what exactly led to all the disturbances”.

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Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said he was “sorry this could happen to Londoners in our city” and urged anyone with information about the situation to contact the police. “I won’t rest until we get the answers their loved ones need and deserve,” he tweeted.

The deadly event in London follows the death of 11 people in a crush at an October concert in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, the same night a crowd crush in Seoul claimed 158 dead. Earlier that month, a crush at an Indonesian soccer stadium killed at least 130 people.

Washington Post investigations into crashes in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood and Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang, Indonesia, revealed serious missteps by officials in each tragedy – a slow police response and a lack of crowd control in Seoul and a tear gas barrage and closed exits in Malang – which contributed to the high death toll.