New Year stampede in China kills 36

SHANGHAI // New Year celebrations in China turned into tragedy when at least 36 revellers were killed in a stampede on Shanghai’s historic waterfront.

The incident took place shortly before midnight on Wednesday as people packed the Bund area to usher in 2015.

Some witnesses said revellers had scrambled for fake money thrown from a building, but others downplayed the likelihood that this was to blame.

City officials said 36 people were killed and 47 injured, 13 of them seriously.

“I witnessed lifeless bodies being carried out of a crowd one by one and dumped on the street,” said American Andrew Shainker, who watched from a rooftop terrace across the road as the disaster unfolded on a wide stairway leading up to a riverfront promenade.

He posted on Chinese messaging network Wechat: “You could hear screams of panic. What I thought was the best view on the Bund ended up being a front row seat to an international tragedy.”

Most of the victims appeared to be Chinese, he said.

The official news agency Xinhua said 25 women were among the dead, and the ages of the first 10 identified fatalities ranged from 16 to 36.

A photo on the Shanghai Daily newspaper’s website showed what appeared to be dead and injured people lying on the ground with crowds still in the background. State TV footage showed abandoned footwear littering the area and a line of police vans with flashing lights.

Some witnesses said dollar-like notes had been thrown from a window, prompting a scramble to retrieve it.

“We saw people scattering money from Bund 18,” wrote one wtiness on social media, but others pointed out a wide street separates the building from the staircase where the main stampede occurred.

Zhou Miaochen, who was standing near the steps, said it was “impossible” for the notes to reach the crowd there.

The disaster occurred despite efforts by authorities in China’s commercial hub to mitigate the risk of overcrowding.

A new location was chosen specifically this year due to concerns about overcrowding after nearly 300,000 people turned out to see in 2014, the Shanghai Daily newspaper said.

Chinese president Xi Jinping demanded an immediate investigation into the cause, Xinhua reported.

* Agence France-Presse