New Year stampede kills 36 in China's financial capital - AFPT Jan 01, 2015
SHANGHAI - A New Year's stampede on Shanghai's historic waterfront killed at least 36 (raised to more than 80 at time of my writing!) revellers and injured dozens more, mostly women, as one police officer said fewer personnel than previously were securing the area.
American Andrew Shainker, an English teacher, posted on Chinese messaging network WeChat: "I witnessed lifeless bodies being carried out of a crowd one by one and dumped on the street.
"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. "I felt I was suffocating," wrote one person posting on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.
Xinhua said that among the dead was a Taiwanese and 25 of those killed were women. It added that the ages of the first 10 identified fatalities ranged from 16 to 36. A Malaysian student at a Chinese university was among the dead, Malaysia's foreign ministry said. Another Malaysian and two Taiwanese were among the injured, the Shanghai government reported. President Xi Jinping demanded an immediate investigation into the cause of the disaster.
It was scaled down and moved to a new location away from the main Bund specifically due to concerns about overcrowding after nearly 300,000 people turned out to see the spectacle last New Year's Eve, the Shanghai Daily said.
Dollar-like notes Both Sarah and Shainker were in Bund 18, a shopping and entertainment complex where witnesses said dollar-like notes had been thrown from a window, prompting a scramble to retrieve them.
Shanghai television said authorities were investigating the money-throwing incident, but attributed the cause of the accident to people slipping and falling in the crowded conditions on the Bund.
And in Hong Kong, when it was still a British colony, 20 people were killed at the start of 1993 as New Year's revellers poured into a narrow street in the Lan Kwai Fong entertainment district."
I was based in Hong Kong in 1992-93 and watched on TV the Lan Kwai Fong's Stampede Tragedy! I was OUT with my family, for the FIRST time in a decade or so, walking among the thousands of revellers and spectators around the Marina Bay 2014 Countdown to 2015 event, thankfully NOTHING tragic happened.
Lessons for me are:
1. it is TRAGIC. It had happened. Hopefully it will NOT happen again. Need to put it behind us and live on and live strong - the survivors and the surviving family members and friends of the dead;
2. if the 'throwing of fake-money incident' caused the start of the stampede, it must be one of the WORST marketing nightmares. Could the marketers be charged for 'culpable homicide'? Could it NOT had occurred to the marketers that such an antics CAN have disastrously deadly effect like what had just happened?;
3. while we grieved for these victims and their loved ones and friends, it MUST be put behind us quickly but RESPECTFULLY. There must be other good things happening in the world when this tragedy struck. Look for them, think about them, and move forward in 2015 with these GOOD THINGS in mind while remembering this tragedy.
I recently learned that our behaviours WILL BE guided by our thoughts. IF we think -vely, we will likely behave -vely. However, IF we think +vely, we will likely behave +vely.
I have NEVER see +ve results coming out of -ve behaviors BUT I have seen +ve results WHEN people behave +vely!! THAT is the CHANCE we MUST TAKE! It is in OUR MIND and hence, in OUR HANDS.
Rest in peace to the dead and live on and live strong for the rest of us!
SHANGHAI - A New Year's stampede on Shanghai's historic waterfront killed at least 36 (raised to more than 80 at time of my writing!) revellers and injured dozens more, mostly women, as one police officer said fewer personnel than previously were securing the area.
American Andrew Shainker, an English teacher, posted on Chinese messaging network WeChat: "I witnessed lifeless bodies being carried out of a crowd one by one and dumped on the street.
"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. "I felt I was suffocating," wrote one person posting on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.
Xinhua said that among the dead was a Taiwanese and 25 of those killed were women. It added that the ages of the first 10 identified fatalities ranged from 16 to 36. A Malaysian student at a Chinese university was among the dead, Malaysia's foreign ministry said. Another Malaysian and two Taiwanese were among the injured, the Shanghai government reported. President Xi Jinping demanded an immediate investigation into the cause of the disaster.
It was scaled down and moved to a new location away from the main Bund specifically due to concerns about overcrowding after nearly 300,000 people turned out to see the spectacle last New Year's Eve, the Shanghai Daily said.
Dollar-like notes Both Sarah and Shainker were in Bund 18, a shopping and entertainment complex where witnesses said dollar-like notes had been thrown from a window, prompting a scramble to retrieve them.
Shanghai television said authorities were investigating the money-throwing incident, but attributed the cause of the accident to people slipping and falling in the crowded conditions on the Bund.
And in Hong Kong, when it was still a British colony, 20 people were killed at the start of 1993 as New Year's revellers poured into a narrow street in the Lan Kwai Fong entertainment district."
I was based in Hong Kong in 1992-93 and watched on TV the Lan Kwai Fong's Stampede Tragedy! I was OUT with my family, for the FIRST time in a decade or so, walking among the thousands of revellers and spectators around the Marina Bay 2014 Countdown to 2015 event, thankfully NOTHING tragic happened.
Lessons for me are:
1. it is TRAGIC. It had happened. Hopefully it will NOT happen again. Need to put it behind us and live on and live strong - the survivors and the surviving family members and friends of the dead;
2. if the 'throwing of fake-money incident' caused the start of the stampede, it must be one of the WORST marketing nightmares. Could the marketers be charged for 'culpable homicide'? Could it NOT had occurred to the marketers that such an antics CAN have disastrously deadly effect like what had just happened?;
3. while we grieved for these victims and their loved ones and friends, it MUST be put behind us quickly but RESPECTFULLY. There must be other good things happening in the world when this tragedy struck. Look for them, think about them, and move forward in 2015 with these GOOD THINGS in mind while remembering this tragedy.
I recently learned that our behaviours WILL BE guided by our thoughts. IF we think -vely, we will likely behave -vely. However, IF we think +vely, we will likely behave +vely.
I have NEVER see +ve results coming out of -ve behaviors BUT I have seen +ve results WHEN people behave +vely!! THAT is the CHANCE we MUST TAKE! It is in OUR MIND and hence, in OUR HANDS.
Rest in peace to the dead and live on and live strong for the rest of us!
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