At least 21 people were killed, mostly trampled or crushed to death, at a Chicago night club this morning when they scrambled to escape fumes from a crowd control spray used to break up a fight.
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Chicago Police move their mobile command center in front of the Epitome Night Club in Chicago today.
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Witnesses said a fight broke out between two women and a security guard used a crowd control agent, perhaps pepper spray, to break it up. Patrons began to flee the fumes and were told they had to exit via a steep front stairway, witnesses said, even though there was at least one rear exit.
There were an estimated 1,500 party goers in a second floor dance hall above the Epitome restaurant on Chicago's near South Side when the stampede occurred before 3 a.m. (9 a.m. Irish time).
The Chicago Fire Department said four people died at the scene and many more were taken away suffering cardiac arrest. It did not have a final official death toll but the Chicago Tribuneand other media outlets said a check of several hospitals to which victims were taken showed that 21 had died.
The club was in a popular black entertainment district south of downtown Chicago, across the street from the Chicago Defendernewspaper.
The Rev Jesse Jackson who came to the scene said he had been told that between 18 and 20 people had perished in the stampede and that the tragedy was clearly accidental.