A girl who was in the queue for the disco in Cookstown, Co Tyrone has described the devastating moment the “crushing started”.

Three young people – two boys and a girl – were killed and three others hurt in a suspected stampede outside the Greenvale Hotel on St Patrick’s night.

One of the three victims has been named locally as 17-year-old Lauren Bullock.

The other two boys who died were aged 17 and 16.

A young girl has described in harrowing detail how the commotion unfolded. She said she fell and was trapped under other young people in the queue.

“It started with pushing and shoving but everyone was still laughing and having a good time. Then the literal crushing started,” she wrote on Facebook.

“The people on the outside of this line were so determined to get in they felt the need to not only push us against the wall but push with all their strength. No matter how much we screamed and pushed back, there was no movement.

“Two of my friends fell to the ground. I tried to pull them up but at that point there was no room for them to even come back up. So I started screaming at the top of my lungs: ‘My friends are on the ground, move back! My friends have fainted, move back! My friends can’t breath, move back!

“Nothing. Not one bit of movement.

“I could still see people laughing with no idea what was going on. At this point I thought my friends were going to die, I was standing up and I couldn’t breathe so I couldn’t imagine how they felt. I was hysterically screaming for people to move but it was only the people around me who knew the seriousness.

“With more and more pushing, I also fell. But the thing about me was that I wasn’t on the ground, I was on top of someone, and this person was on top of someone else.

• Read more: St Patrick’s Day tragedy: Police examining CCTV as three teens killed in ‘suspected crush’ at disco

“As I looked down I could see multiple bodies underneath me and as I looked up I could see multiple bodies on top of me. It was the most traumatic, frightening and stressful moment of my life.

“People were scratching, biting and grabbing anything they could to pull themselves up to breath. I think that’s what really shows the seriousness of it all, people were literally fighting for their lives.

“It felt like this went on forever but eventually I felt bodies being dragged over me and beside me…it was the young people in the line who pulled me out.

“My leg was caught underneath someone and my hair was caught somewhere else, my jeans were pulled down around my thighs and my jersey above my head but I was getting pulled out nonetheless.

“I rang my parents to explain what had happened and let them know I was okay.

“Unfortunately, a friend of mine who I had seen in the line and chatted to minutes beforehand has died.  They didn’t make it home. My heart breaks for their poor families. I’m heartbroken.”

Meanwhile a mother whose two sons had travelled to the Greenvale Hotel to attend the St Patrick’s Day disco said they have been “traumatised” by the suspected stampede.

Emma Hetherington from Donamore said neither of her two sons were injured – but her daughter’s friend was tragically killed in the incident. The young girl was also from Donamore.

Speaking on RTÉ radio, Emma said that as news emerged of the incident, she desperately tried to reach her two sons to make sure that they were ok.

She said the two had travelled to the disco with friends from the locality.

“They are both obviously quite traumatised by everything that has happened and everything that has happened since as the news unfolds this morning,” she said.

“They were with their own friends in the queue to go into the disco

“They say that there was commotion at the front, then they were all asked to step back. And before long police and ambulance were on the scene and it was all frantic

“It was very quick, very mad, very crazy. It was surreal. They don’t know what happened.”

Emma said her youngest son saw a boy on the ground as ambulance staff tried to resuscitate him.

“It turned out he was from his year in school as you can imagine that was extremely traumatic for him to witness that,” she said.

Emma said that she learned that something had happened through social media late on Sunday night.

“When I saw the call out on Facebook to get your children home, I felt sick. I couldn’t even hold the phone I was shaking.

“I got through to one of them and he was ok, he was in the nearby McDonalds.

“He said: ‘Mummy it is not good,’ then he was cut off.

“I was walking around the house trying to get mobile coverage to get through to both of them and finally I did.,

“I can’t even describe the relief of the sound of their keys in the door. But the trauma wasn’t over.

“Then my daughter came screaming down the stairs to say that her friend was dead.”

“My daughter wanted to be with her friends, they all just wanted to be together last night.”

CCTV will play a crucial role in the investigation into the deaths of three young teenagers, police said.

“A major investigation is now underway, however preliminary information suggests a crush took place towards the front door,” a PSNI spokesperson said.

“Our investigation is at an early stage, and while the exact cause of the incident is still unknown, there are reports of a crush at the scene and initial enquiries indicate that a large group of young people were waiting to enter a disco.

“We also have reports of some fighting after the incident commenced and at least one person has reported that they were assaulted.”

Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton said from his understanding, the event was not an underage disco so a “full investigation will be carried out as to why the young people were there”.

Independent.ie has learned that the PSNI has footage that recorded the sequence of events and will help identify how the horror unfolded.

It is believed a crowd of young people had gathered at the hotel to gain access to a disco to which the doors were due to open at 9.30pm, according to local SDLP MLA Patsy McGlone.

“But it seems that just before the doors were to open, at around 9.25pm there was a crush at the door and people began to fall,” he said.

Local sources say the three dead teenagers are from the Dungannon area.

Emergency services were called to the hotel about 9.30pm. Five emergency crews, paramedics and doctors were dispatched to the scene.

A multi-agency response was launched involving the PSNI and the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS).

Earlier today Mr McGlone spoke to the media at the entrance to the hotel, which remained sealed off as the investigation into the tragedy continued.

“The reaction here last night and in the early hours of this morning is one of shock. People really are at a low ebb this morning. It’s a huge loss in the community,” he said.

“Youngsters going out for a disco on St Patrick’s night. Everybody, their families, all thinking they are safe and well, and then the news turns differently.

“Out and about this morning speaking to people their hearts feel for the families of the youngsters who have died here,” he added.

“What went wrong is the subject of a police investigation at the moment, and it’s best to leave that in the hands of those who are tasked with that to establish. As the police outlined this morning they have some CCTV footage. Anyone who witnessed what happened here last night should please come forward and give that information to the police so that a proper and full investigation can be pursued,” Mr McGlone explained.

“I’ve already spoken to the local health trust, the chief executive and one of the directors this morning, and I’ve liaised with the GAA and the police here to make sure that any counselling g that can be made available is made available for those involved with the incident.

“But I’m sure there may well be staff and indeed some of the emergency services who will require that support. The health trust have what they call a hub meeting tomorrow morning to decide how best to take that forward,” he added.

Police are appealing for anyone who witnessed the incident to get in contact. They urged parents to talk to their children and encourage them to come forward to describe what happened.

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