New Year’s Eve usually is a time for celebration and reflection on the things we did on the previous year and what to improve on the new one. None of these things however occurred during the New Year’s celebrations in Shanghai. As many have gathered by the thousands along the city’s historic waterfront that is where the disaster took place. 36 people died during the New Year’s Eve and 47 were injured, leaving their families heartbroken and shaken and lashing out at the inefficiency of the authorities that were unable to prevent this plight. The 36 dead were crushed and died from suffocating during a stampede which occurred on Chen Yi square and their relatives still try to find information about them at the Shanghai People’s Hospital. Various witnesses say that individuals from a building started throwing fake money at the crowd gathered for New Year’s festivities. This hypothesis hasn’t been yet confirmed though.
Some of the witnesses said that the individuals that threw the fake money on the crowd were atop a bar located at an upper floor of a building but authorities still investigate. Seven of the 47 injured were released from the hospital but 13 still have serious injuries. The area where the incident happened is known for being widely populated by people during festivities and major events. After the tragedy many accused the government for its lack of responsiveness and communication with the relatives of the victims, states Xinhua News Agency. The fake dollar bills that supposedly started the stampede actually seemed to be coupons that bore the name of the bar from which they were thrown. Among the dead there were also Taiwanese and Malaysian nationals that participated at the annual New Year’s Eve countdown at the Bund which attracts about 300,000 people. Due to ensuing crowd control issues that followed the tragedy, the countdown has been cancelled as the authorities of Shanghai didn’t expect so many people to assemble at the site of the event and there were not adequately prepared for such a crisis.