By Jack Mendel
The 02 Academy Brixton has had its premises licence suspended following two deaths this week during crowd problems.
The famous south London venue has its licence taken away by Lambeth Council in wake of the incident on 15 December, in which two people died and multiple suffered serious injury.
The council’s relevant committee took the decision after the Met Police submitted an application for a licence review on 20 December.
The crush happened for a concert by Nigerian artist Asake, with the venue urging crowds not to come without a ticket – but some fatally didn’t take the advice.
Cllr Mahamed Hashi, Lambeth’s Cabinet Member for Safer Communities, said: “A tragic incident has happened in our borough and we are dealing with its devastating impact on our communities. Our thoughts are with those who have suffered, especially the families and friends of Rebecca Ikumelo and Gaby Hutchinson who have tragically lost their lives.
“I wish to thank my colleagues on the sub-committee for their careful and rigorous work in looking at this issue at this first stage of the process. We will now continue with our work to reassure our communities about safety at the venue, get the answers needed about how this happened and support the Met police investigations into these tragic events.”
The incident took the lives of security guard Gaby Hutchinson, 23, and Rebecca Ikumelo, 33.
The Met’s specialist crime command is running an investigation using CCTV footage.
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