A woman who escaped the Stardust fire has told Dublin District Coroner's Court that the doors of the main entrance were closed after she exited to prevent people from re-entering.
Linda Bishop was giving evidence at the inquests into the deaths of 48 young people in the 1981 blaze.
She said after she escaped she "realised they were trying to keep the people outside out".
Asked by Counsel Brenda Campbell, who is representing families of the victims, how soon after she made it out, were the doors closed, she said "It wasn’t very long at all".
Ms Bishop was asked if there were people still inside when the doors were closed.
She said: "Absolutely, you could hear people screaming."
She added that she did not know who was closing the doors and described the scenes as "mayhem".
Ms Bishop said people were looking for "brothers and sisters and friends".
The fire brigade arrived after the doors were closed, she said, and explained efforts to break the windows.
She said there were "fellas" on the windows trying to kick them.
"We could hear people screaming inside, shouting and banging".
Ms Bishop told the court that a garda then told her and her friends to leave.
She said she told him "we'll go home if you promise to get everybody out" and he said "’I promise".
Ms Bishop also described the events leading up to her first noticing the fire.
She said it had been particularly cold in the club that night when she "suddenly got a shudder" by a blast of heat.
Ms Bishop said she looked at her digital watch and the time was 1.33am.
She then got up and danced "for a couple of minutes" and saw the fire, which she described as small, and her first thought was "they'll put it out".
Ms Bishop said: "Everything happened so quick" and the whole area of the west alcove caught fire.
She described how the lights went out and the smoke and fumes made it very hard to breathe and "it was pitch dark".
Ms Bishop also told the court that after her evidence to the 1981 Keane Tribunal, she remembers bouncers "half-joking" saying "you were hanging us up there".
She said that Mr Justice Keane "told all the bouncers off" and said they were not allowed to have any interaction with her and her friends.
The court also heard from Harry Fitzsimons who had been a doorman at the Stardust nightclub for around three years, but was not working the night of the fire.
Michael O'Higgins, SC, representing families of the dead, asked if there had ever been discussions among staff about the potential for something to go wrong in relation to the practice of wrapping chains around the bars of doors to give the impression they were locked.
"No, I never heard that to be said," he stated.
Asked if there was a safety culture, Mr Fitzsimons said there was not.
He also agreed that there seemed to be a high turnover of door staff at the club.
He said he saw "new faces coming and going all the time".
He agreed again with Mr O’ Higgins who stated that it was disproportionate to "lock everyone in like it’s a fortress" to keep non-paying customers out.
