On 16 June 1883, a children's magic show was presented at the Victoria Hall in Sunderland, England.
At the show's end, an announcement was made that children with certain numbered tickets would be presented with a prize upon exit. At the same time, entertainers began distributing gifts from the stage to the children in the stalls. Worried about missing out on the treats, many of the estimated 1,100 children in the gallery surged toward the staircase leading downstairs.
At the bottom of the staircase, the door opened inward and had been bolted to leave a gap only wide enough for one child to pass at a time. It is believed this was to ensure the orderly checking of tickets. With few accompanying adults to maintain order, the children surged down the stairs toward the door. Those at the front became trapped and were crushed to death by the weight of the crowd behind them.
When the adults in the auditorium realised what was happening, they rushed to the door but could not open it as the bolt was on the children's side. Caretaker Frederick Graham tried in vain to disentangle the pile-up, then ran up another staircase and diverted approximately 600 children to safety by another exit. Meanwhile, other adults pulled the children one by one through the narrow gap, before one man wrenched the door off its hinges.

The compressive asphyxia as a result of the crowd crush killed 183 children between 3 and 14 years of age.