The NIS invited 25,000 candidates to the 16,000 capacity Port Harcourt Stadium, though the NIS spokesman for the Port Harcourt Command, Bisong Abang, estimated the crowd to be 40,000. At 10:00 AM, NIS officials opened one of the two gates to begin screening applicants. The crowd surged forward, and many of those in front fell to the ground, with those behind them falling on top of them in a progressive crowd collapse. Soldiers fired their rifles into the air, as they did in Benin, though this caused further panic in the crowd. One unnamed witness said “far fewer people would have died today if the officers had not shot into the air." When it was over, two people were dead at the scene, and three died later in a local hospital. One physician, speaking anonymously, at Braithwaithe Memorial Specialist Hospital said 12 patients had been brought to that facility. Of those 12, four had died, four were in critical condition, and four had been treated and released. Other patients were treated in the nearby military hospital.
