Italian police investigating a deadly disco stampede say they found a pepper spray can and are questioning dozens of witnesses following accounts by concertgoers that a teenage boy had sprayed an irritating substance, triggering the mad rush by the crowd to flee.
It wasn't known if the can found was the one that apparently set off the stampede about 1am on Saturday in a crowd awaiting a rapper's performance in the Lanterna Azzurra (Blue Lantern) disco in Corinaldo, the Carabiniere paramilitary police commander of Ancona province told reporters.
Corinaldo is a small town in the Marche region of east-central Italy,
Colonel Cristian Carrozza also declined to confirm Italian media reports that a 16-year-old boy had been identified as the sprayer and would be questioned by juvenile court officials.
Five teenagers and a woman who had accompanied her 11-year-old daughter to the concert died in the crush of fleeing concertgoers who toppled over a railing atop a cement ramp outside an exit.
The railing gave way, sending young people tumbling over it and landing atop of each other in the area below the ramp, about 1.5 metres below.
On Saturday, prosecutors and Italy's premier and interior minister told reporters that nearly 1400 tickets had been sold, while the disco could safely hold only 870 people, with the capacity of the room of the concert itself set at about 460.
On Sunday, Carrozza said a count of ticket stubs indicated that about 600 tickets were used for entry. It was unclear if others might have gotten in without having tickets checked by disco personnel.
One of the DJs, Marco Cecchini, told reporters he was sure that more than just one room of the disco was open, in addition to the one with the 460-person capacity.
"I've done 40-50 evenings in that place, and, sincerely, there weren't so many people. I'd estimate maybe 800-900 people, but all the rooms were open," the Italian news agency ANSA quoted Cecchini, who is the son of one of the disco's managers, as saying.
Many parents and patrons have said the disco was jam-packed.
Seven of the more than 50 people injured in the stampede remained in critical condition on Sunday.
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