The Police have completed their probe into the Harbour Nights horse stampede and passed their findings to the Department of Public Prosecutions.

Nineteen people were injured when two spooked horses crashed through a barrier and dragged their unmanned carriage into the crowd at the Front Street tourist event on April 25.

The most seriously injured victim, a woman visiting from the US, suffered two broken arms, a broken leg and a badly damaged ear.

No one has been arrested or charged over the stampede. According to a Police source it is being viewed as a freak accident, unlikely to result in any prosecution. "From all accounts, it's just one of those cases, just one of those weird things," said the insider.

The incident involved horses belonging to Ray Bean, a Dockyard-based carriage operator. Mr. Bean was said to have chased his runaway horses and calmed them down, despite suffering rib injuries when they first ran out of control.

Speculation about the cause of the horses getting spooked has ranged from an exploding firecracker and noise from a children's train to a bridle plume sweeping one of the animals in the head.

Both Mayor of Hamilton Sutherland Madeiros and Diane Gordon, executive vice president of Harbour Nights organisers the Chamber of Commerce, called several months ago for the Police to share their findings as soon as possible.

Mr. Madeiros said the Corporation of Hamilton wished to review them before making a decision on whether horses and carriages should be banned from the city.

Mrs. Gordon said the victims need to see the report in order to provide "closure".

She told The Royal Gazette at the time: "It's really sad we are stuck in this rumour mill but that's normal. Because people don't have a concrete report in front of them, we are guessing."

Director of Public Prosecutions Rory Field said this week that the file is being reviewed by a Senior Crown counsel in his department.

He did not indicate when a conclusion is likely to be reached. A Police spokesman confirmed the investigation has been completed, but declined to comment on whether the outcome will ever be made public.

Both Mr. Bean and Mr. Madeiros said they have heard nothing of the outcome of the investigation.