21 teens rushed to hospital after overdosing at music festival where girl died

21 teenagers were rushed to hospital after overdosing on drugs at the same event where a 17-year-old girl died.

Police have revealed further details about the ‘major incident’ at a drum and bass festival in Margate, Kent, on June 29.

17-year-old Emily Stokes died after a suspected MDMA overdose at the Dreamland event.

Police say another teenager remains in a medically induced coma who was among dozens of under 18s taken to hospital after the festival on June 29.

The tragedy prompted police to declare a major incident, undertake an investigation and request five interim measures, including the cancellation of all drum and bass events, to Dreamland’s event licence which were agreed by Thanet council members on a licensing sub-committee on July 9.

Details of the full scale of the events have been revealed in an application from police to council bosses to review Dreamland’s licence.

In the application from Kent Police it says: ‘Kent Police have been informed of an additional 21 patients who were admitted to hospital suffering with similar symptoms relating to a drugs overdose, all of whom had also been at the Dreamland event.

‘Kent Police declared a major incident. All except one person have been discharged, with the remaining victim (at the time of writing) remaining in hospital in a medically induced coma.’

There were around 6,300 tickets sold in advance of the Worried About Henry event and 700 tickets were sold on the door.

In the early afternoon Kent Police became aware of several people ejected from the venue through intoxication, which was possibly drug related, and three people at that point being taken to hospital from the venue believed to be suffering the ill effects of a drugs overdose.

Just before 6pm police officers found a 17-year-old male on the Hall by the Sea Road who was unwell and suffering with the side effects of drug use.

First aid was administered, and an ambulance called.

Shortly after this a call was made to Kent Police by NHS staff to advise that Emily, who was one of the three taken to hospital earlier from the event, had died following a suspected MDMA overdose.

The police review application says: ‘Due to the circumstance around the death of the child, a tactical discussion was held with key partners around closing Dreamland and holding it as a crime scene.

‘It was decided that this would likely have caused a large-scale public order incident and that allowing the event to continue would assist in the identification and support of any further casualties who could be treated accordingly.

‘This was a challenging decision but allowed mitigating factors to implemented to minimise the risk towards already vulnerable children at the event.’

At 7pm that evening a Major Incident was declared with police by then aware of 11 people being taken to hospital due to ‘drug use and potential overdoses.’

All of those people were aged under 18 with the youngest being 15.

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