 Shortly after the meeting began local magistrates called on the military authorities to arrest Hunt and several others on the hustings with him , and to disperse the crowd . Cavalry charged into the crowd with sabres drawn , and in the ensuing confusion , 15 people were killed and 400 – 700 were injured . The massacre was given the name Peterloo in an ironic comparison to the Battle of Waterloo , which had taken place four years earlier . 
