[?]Mass hysteria in central London

Two London underground stations were closed today after the police received "numerous" reports of gunfire at Oxford Circus station and in Oxford Street in the afternoon. A search of the area revealed no evidence that any shots had been fired. But sixteen people had been injured in the resulting panic. Apparently all this was the result of an "altercation" between two men on a platform:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42117311

[Laird]

I heard about this on the BBC News segment of our public broadcaster's 24-hour news channel - it's a very strange story. Why would multiple people report gunfire if there hadn't been any? And what would start a stampede if not something that sounded like gunfire? What would the police, arriving on the scene after the fact, count as evidence of gunfire?

I think some guns eject shell casings after firing, but revolvers don't.

Depending on conditions and timing, there might be a smell lingering in the area after gunfire.

If anyone was hit by gunfire, there could be blood stains etc.

I've heard there are surveillance cameras all over London so there could be video evidence as well.

[Laird]

Yep, blood stains or especially locating somebody with a bullet wound would probably be the most reliable evidence. I understand that they didn't find any of that.

It's not all that hard to get a lot of people panicking. All you need is a couple and the rest typically instinctively follow, thinking there must be a good reason the first few are freaking out. Then it just snowballs from there although there are exceptions. Also finding a bullet embedded in a wall somewhere is pretty good evidence.

[Laird]

True, there can be a snowball effect.

Are you saying they found a bullet embedded in a wall or are you just suggesting that it would also be good evidence?

An update from the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017...e-incident

"The panic appears to have been spread not only by the sight of fleeing crowds and word of mouth, but by incorrect reports on social media."

Surprise, surprise!

This event sound similar to the Las Vegas one. There were reports of gunfire in many places, and people there were told to "run, run". Later on the police denies that was any gunfire.

One can suspect that there are persons who deliberately causes these stampedes.

I heard something on the radio recently, unrelated to the event described here. Someone was describing how they were running for some reason, perhaps just because running was fun, or because they were in a hurry, I don't remember the exact circumstance. But as they were running along, they found some passer-by also running with them, except the passer-by was not doing it for fun: they were afraid.

The person describing the situation was somewhat shocked, their mundane action had triggered fear in someone else. The passer-by explained they thought they were running from a bomb attack or something similar.

I heard something on the radio recently, unrelated to the event described here. Someone was describing how they were running for some reason, perhaps just because running was fun, or because they were in a hurry, I don't remember the exact circumstance. But as they were running along, they found some passer-by also running with them, except the passer-by was not doing it for fun: they were afraid.

The person describing the situation was somewhat shocked, their mundane action had triggered fear in someone else. The passer-by explained they thought they were running from a bomb attack or something similar.

[Image: crazyrunninggirl.animals-running-meme.jpg]