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Most Shanghai stampede victims young women

January 2, 2015

Shanghai has begun grieving the victims of a stampede that took dozens of lives on New Year's Eve. Locals as well as the media consider the police and government responsible for the tragedy - and not 'money coupons.'

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Schanghai China Massenpanik während Silvesterfeier Trauer 1. Jan. 2015
Image: Reuters/Aly Song

China mourned on Friday (02.01.2015) the 36 who died in a New Year's Eve stampede in Shanghai's famous Bund waterfront. According to city officials, most of the victims were young women. All but four were under 25.

The Shanghai government told media that an additional 47 people were injured, with 13 in critical condition. The people of Shanghai blamed police and city administrators for failing to prepare for such a situation. The Bund district is increasingly famous for its New Year's Eve festivities, with an estimated 300,000 coming to take in the fireworks display in 2013.

"It was a lack of vigilance from the government, a sloppiness," wrote Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

Cause remains a mystery

Neither police nor the government commented on what caused the stampede, although they denied earlier reports that a scramble for coupons resembling money tossed from the third story window of a local night club were to blame. In a statement on Weibo, which is similar to Twitter, police said after reviewing video surveillance footage that the incident with the coupons occurred several minutes after the accident and 60 meters away.

Witnesses, however, said the coupons did add to the chaos.

Police admit mistakes

According to China News Service, a deputy police commander, Cai Lixin, conceded that "police failed to expect the number of people for this event."

Cai added that by 11:30 p.m. the crowd was "increasingly irregular" and expressed regret for not having been able to intervene properly. He further explained that around 500 officers were mobilized when the area became congested, but due to the large size of the crowd, it took longer than usual to get to the scene.

When asked why people were not kept away, considering that an annual New Year's event scheduled to take place in the Bund area had been canceled amid concerns of crowd numbers, Cai said, "The Bund is a public area. Numbers cannot be limited except in emergency situations."

The tragedy is the worst to hit Shanghai since 2010, when a fire broke out in a high-rise residential building, killing 58 people.

es/cd (AFP, dpa, Reuters)