O2 Academy to remain closed after Brixton crush, council rules

• Brixton O2 Academy will remain closed for at least three months.
• The arena won’t reopen before April 16 at the earliest.
• Earlier, the venue’s license was suspended by the Lambeth licensing subcommittee.

Lambeth Council has decided that the Brixton O2 Academy in London will remain closed for at least three months.

It occurs after a crowd surge caused by the Afro-pop musician Asake on December 15 resulted in two fatalities and several injuries.

In the collision, Rebecca Ikumelo and Gaby Hutchinson suffered fatal injuries.

Earlier, the venue’s licence was suspended by the Lambeth licencing subcommittee.

When numerous individuals attempted to enter the south London venue, the Nigerian artist Asake’s third sold-out performance in a week had to be stopped short.

Nursing graduate Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, from Newham, east London, was the mother of two children and Gaby Hutchinson, 23, from Gravesend in Kent, was a security contractor working at the venue.

Shortly after the crush, the council suspended the Brixton O2’s license pending a full hearing by the sub-committee.

The Met Police had said it would use the meeting to “seek a further suspension” – something the venue’s owner and operator, Academy Music Group, agreed with.

During the latest meeting, the Met told the committee the investigation had been challenging – involving statements from hundreds of potential witnesses, examining more than 500 sets of documents, reviewing social media content and analyzing footage from more than 40 CCTV cameras.

The force stressed it was not possible to make a final decision on what should happen to the venue’s license, until that investigation had progressed further.

“Until we know what happened, we can’t say what needs to be done differently,” the Met’s lawyer Gerald Gouriet KC told committee members, adding: “The answers won’t be known for some time.”

Members of the committee decided that the arena shouldn’t reopen before April 16 at the earliest.

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