A man has been arrested by the police in connection with the incident in PlusOne club in Paceville on Saturday night which caused a stampede in which 74 people were injured.

The man, 18, allegedly used a gas spray inside the crowded premises, sparking the stampede. Eight people remain hospitalised, including a 13-year-old girl in intensive care, after a glass railing lining the entrance stairwell to the nightclub collapsed during a stampede out of the club late Saturday night.

In a statement in Parliament yesterday evening, Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela said it appeared that there had been a fight inside the club.

A short time later people started feeling shortness of breath and bouncers started telling people to get out.

Several eyewitnesses reported the cause of the mass exit to be an odourless, colourless gas which caused an intense burning sensation in the lungs and difficulty in breathing. A number of people were also admitted to hospital for redness in the eyes and shortness of breath.

It is understood that the magisterial inquiry into the incident has appointed a chemical expert to look into reports of the gas. Initial suggestions published in the media were a gas leak, tear gas or pepper spray.

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Gas spray allegedly used in club

A chemical expert who spoke to this newspaper said the three substances would all have created a distinct and powerful aroma inconsistent with eyewitness reports.

The expert confirmed that a large number of easily-obtainable chemical substances could have caused the same effects, and that the heat inside the club would have allowed the substance to vaporise and spread faster.

Whenever you have a situation of panic on a staircase, there’s the probability of an incident

However, he was unable to identify an odourless liquid that could be responsible, suggesting that a faint odour may have been masked by the normal smells inside the club.

Meanwhile, some questions persist around a number of possible health and safety issues.

Dramatic footage of the incident which appeared yesterday shows club-goers stuck on the overloaded staircase for some time before the bulging railing collapsed.

Addressing a press conference yesterday, PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami questioned whether the establishment had functioning emergency exits, when the last health and safety audit took place and whether the club was overcrowded at the time of the incident.

Similar questions were also raised independently by Labour MP Marlene Farrugia.

A health and safety expert who spoke to this newspaper also questioned the suitability of the exit staircase to an evacuation situation, adding that glass could not be considered a safety feature unless reinforced with steel.

“Whenever you have a situation of panic on a staircase, there’s the probability of an incident,” he said. “Even if you have handrails, all it takes is one person slipping and you’re going to have serious crushing injuries.”

The expert said that, generally, many entertainment venues in the area showed clear failings in ensuring safe evacuation, due to a lack of visibility or accessibility of emergency exits.

The scene outside the PlusOne club in Paceville on Sunday. Inset: the bloodied railing on the entrance stairway. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

He noted that health and safety regulations for Paceville clubs were often quite lax, with establishments licensed as bars rather than nightclubs, taking advantage of less stringent licencing requirements.

Overcrowding was also a major problem due to a lack of enforcement, he said. While national regulations require that the maximum capacity of any establishment is displayed at the door, there is no internal monitoring by managers, security personnel or door staff, and almost no spot checks are carried out by the authorities while venues are open for business.