Woman dies of injuries sustained in Brixton concert crush

Read More

A woman has died after being injured in an apparent crowd crush at a concert in Brixton, south London, on Thursday.

Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, was one of three people critically injured after fans attempted to gain entry without tickets to a show by Nigerian artist Asake at the south London venue on Thursday.

The Metropolitan police said Ikumelo, from Newham, east London, died in hospital on Saturday, while two other women, aged 21 and 23, remain in a critical condition.

A postmortem will be held on Sunday.

Chief Supt Colin Wingrove, policing commander for Lambeth and Southwark, said: “This is still a fast-moving and evolving picture and we are working to establish the events that led up to the incident.

“We are also aware of a vast amount of footage on social media and of course this will be examined as part of the investigation along with footage from officers’ body worn video cameras.”

The Met launched an investigation on Friday into what it said was an “extremely distressing” incident.

Police found a number of people with “injuries believed to have been caused by crushing” after being called to the venue at about 9.35pm on Thursday.

Asake, whose real name is Ahmed Ololade, was recently nominated for BBC Radio 1’s Sound of 2023 award, for artists breaking through in the UK.

He said in a statement on Instagram: “My heart is with those who were injured last night and caused any form of discomfort. I pray you get well soonest. I am also in the process of reaching out to individuals.

“I still do not have the full brief from the venue management themselves as to what led to the disruption at the entrance of the Brixton Academy, but we are thankful that all was peaceful at the end.

“For my people who enjoyed the beginning of my performance, I am sorry that it was cut short. Thank you for your unbelievable love, London. I love you too much! I’m looking forward to seeing you again in a bit!”

Before the gig, he had posted on Twitter asking fans not to come to the venue unless they had a valid ticket.

The concert was the third of three sold-out dates at the 4,921-standing capacity venue and concluded a run of UK dates.