Hours later, despite all the precautions that had been taken, the situation outside the besieged stadium got completely out of control. The police were hopelessly outnumbered by rioting fans assaulting departing vehicles.
Thom, trying a trusted ruse, sent ahead Tannhäuser’s limo with its tinted windows as a decoy while Silvia and Tannhäuser escaped in an Austin Princess driven by an old chauffeur. But disaster soon struck when, failing to be fooled, a huge, enraged mob converged on their vehicle, completely trapping it.
The dramatic surge of the crowd was so powerful that the heavy car spun around and stalled while the panicked chauffeur screamed with terror.
A spectacle of unspeakable horror unfolded for those inside as the first young girls, whose eager faces had gleefully pressed upon the windows, were being slowly squashed, like bugs, by the overwhelming pressure from those behind them.
Their excited yelling turned to screams of agony while their features distorted grotesquely, and their blood flooded the shattering glass.