'Too cruel': Deadly Shanghai stampede possibly caused by rush for fake cash

A deadly stampede that killed 35 Shanghai New Year’s Eve revellers could have been caused by people rushing to pick up fake money thrown from a building overlooking the city’s famous Bund waterfront district. The Shanghai government said large crowds started to stampede in Chen Yi Square on the Bund just before midnight. The trigger for the stampede has yet to be confirmed, but witnesses said the incident was at least partly caused by people charging for fake money thrown from a building. Another 48 people were injured.

It’s too cruel. People in front of us had already fallen to the floor, and others were stepping all over them.

Eyewitness Cui Tingting, 27

The Xinhua news agency said many of the dead and injured were students. Some were young children. President Xi Jinping has told the Shanghai government to get to the bottom of the incident as soon as possible, and ordered governments across the country to ensure that a similar disaster could not happen again. Authorities were concerned about crowd control in the days leading up to New Year’s Eve. They recently canceled an annual 3D laser show on the Bund that last year attracted around 300,000 people.

Many relatives have asked to go inside and asked the hospital to give us a list of the injured, including the conscious and unconscious ones who are being treated in there, but nobody got back to us.

Fan, a relative of one of the victims

World Shanghai