Mayhem in Mantra as clubbers caught in crush

Scared clubbers were left stuck in the bottom floor of Mantra on Thursday after a crush at the bottom of the stairs led to chaos.

Panicked revellers were left at the bottom of the stairs after crowds formed in a notorious “choke area” where the smoking area, dance floor, men’s toilets and main staircase all meet.

Students trying to get back onto the dance floor were left to shove their way to the front of the crowds. Others who were simply trying to leave the club completely claim they were sworn at and pushed back out to the smoking area by bouncers.

Students have accused Mantra of allowing too many clubbers inside- a claim that Mantra’s management strongly denied.

Clubbers escaping the crush alerted police who swiftly intervened. In a statement the police said: “Officers went inside the venue to the lower floor to find a large number of people in attendance and words of advice were given to the manager.”

Both the police and Mantra maintain that there were no reported injuries, but several students told The Tab they feared for their safety.

A second year student said: “The amount of people built up until we couldn’t move. Everyone was panicking that they were going to be crushed and my hair was trapped and was so painful. It was really scary. The promoters were very friendly and understanding though.”

A second year politics student who was also at the scene said: “It was just chaos, total gridlock. I ended up having to push my way through the crowds and try and organise the staircase myself it was just so badly organised by the bouncers who clearly didn’t have a clue. I don’t know how they allowed so many people in when it was clearly too full. Can’t say I’ll be going back to Mantra for a while.”

One third year Law student also vowed to never return to Mantra. She said: “It was actually really scary! A male friend had to shield myself and another girl against the wall from the mass of people. It was ridiculous, they should not have let anywhere near that many people in. You could not even move on the dance floor either.”

In a statement, Mantra said that the alleged overcrowding was a very small issue lasting a maximum of “three minutes” and that they strictly monitor the amount of people in the club to ensure overcrowding doesn’t happen.

Mantra say they are looking into the problem and intend to introduce new measures in the next few weeks to prevent anything like this happening again.