Danish police yesterday delivered their assessment of the Roskilde rock festival tragedy, pointing to violent and drug-induced fans as responsible for the suffocation of eight young men.
As one of Europe's largest summer music festivals drew to a close, a disturbing but disputed picture began to emerge of the hapless revellers being pinned down in scenes officials admitted they could do little to prevent.
"The victims suffocated to death and fell to the ground to be trampled on by a group of overexcited members of the audience," explained Mr Bent Rungstroem, Roskilde's deputy police commissioner.
Dismissing theories that the victims slipped on muddy ground caused by overnight rain, Mr Rungstroem said unruly Roskilde rock festival goers should shoulder the blame.
"Amid this mad and uncontrolled crowd movement, these youngsters were pinned to the ground unable to get up or find air to breathe," he added, saying the corpses had no sign of trampling or broken bones.
Police identified the dead as a 26-year-old German cadet police officer from Hamburg, a 23-year-old Dutchman, three Swedes and three Danes.
Three others, including a 22 year-old Australian, were seriously injured at the performance late on Friday night by US band Pearl Jam at Denmark's Roskilde festival, attended by some 50,000 music fans.
On Saturday police said they had originally thought that the 11 people taken to hospital were suffering from an overdose of the drug ecstasy.
"I think the muddy floor after Friday's rain played a part in the tragedy. We were slipping as if we were on an ice rink," one of those at the event, Mr Toni Larsen (22) said.