CORINALDO – A 15-year-old boy, believed to be at fault for the use of pepper spray in a nightclub, which caused the deaths of six people, has been arrested for possession of drugs, police sources report on Monday.

 Various eyewitness reports from the scene of the stampede at the Lanterna Azzurra club in Corinaldo (http://www.italianinsider.it/?q=node/7515) identified the individual, whom police then took into custody after finding drugs at his house. According to police, nothing found at the property currently links the boy to the incident in the early hours of Saturday morning.

 Provincial commander of the Carabinieri Cristian Carrozza has maintained that “the spray is not the only track to follow,” while fellow investigators reportedly cannot say with absolute certainty that pepper spray was even used in the build up to the stampede. Possible alternatives for the creation of the “pungent smell” described by those attending the Sfera Ebbasta concert include a malfunction of smoke machines installed at the premises.

 Investigations into possible failings of nightclub management and security are also being carried out. Initial estimates of the number of attendees at the club were overestimated, according to Carrozza. However, around 500 gate receipts were counted, out of 680 tickets sold, for a concert hall that only has “a capacity of 459.”

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