The crush occurred Thursday evening at O2 Academy Brixton, also known as Brixton Academy, a renowned concert venue in London where the Nigerian Afrobeats singer Asake was performing. “A large number of people were attempting to force entry” into the venue, police said. Videos showed a crowd spilling into a narrow entrance as people screamed and onlookers recorded the scene.
First responders performed CPR and first aid after they responded shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday to reports of the crush, police said. In the immediate aftermath, eight people were hospitalized with apparent injuries from the episode, police said.
An autopsy was set to be conducted on Ikumelo on Sunday, police said. Chief Superintendent Colin Wingrove said in a statement that “an urgent investigation” into the episode was underway, noting that “this is still a fast moving and evolving picture and we are working to establish the events that led up to the incident.”
Police appealed to the 4,000 people estimated to have been at the event for photo and video submissions that may help piece together the circumstances that led to the crush. The venue for the sold-out concert can hold a maximum of nearly 5,000 people.
Ikumelo’s family said in a statement issued through the Metropolitan Police that the 33-year-old was a nursing graduate and “adorable mother of two children who loved working with kids. She was well 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 her death.
“I am overwhelmed with grief and could never have imagined anything like this happening,” he said, adding that he and his team were “awaiting the full debrief” from the venue and police “to determine what exactly led to all the disruption.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said on Twitter he was “heartbroken that this could happen to Londoners in our city,” urging people with information about the situation to contact the police. “I won’t rest until we have the answers their loved ones need and deserve,” he said.
The fatal event in London follows the deaths of 11 people from a crowd crush at a concert in October in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, the same night a crowd crush in Seoul left 158 people dead. Earlier that month, a crush at an Indonesian soccer stadium killed at least 130 people.
Washington Post investigations into the crushes in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood and at the Kanjuruhan stadium in Malang, Indonesia, found serious missteps by officials in each tragedy — a slow police response and lack of crowd control in Seoul, and a barrage of tear gas and closed exits in Malang — that contributed to the high death tolls.
