Police in Shanghai, investigating the deadly stampede along the Bund that claimed 36 lives and injured 47 others on New Year's Eve, confirmed in a statement yesterday that fake American dollars scattered from a nearby nightclub were not to blame for the incident.
Reviewing CCTV footage from the area around Chen Yi Square where the tragedy occurred, investigators say that "tens" of vouchers resembling USD100 bills from M18 nightclub were indeed strewn along the intersection of Zhongshan Dongyilu and Nanjing Donglu, inciting some disorder as nearby revelers scurried to pick them up.
However, no one was injured in these moments of confusion, which occurred ten minutes after the deadly crush and took place on the opposite side of the busy thoroughfare running along the banks of the Huangpu River. Whereas the stampede itself happened at 11:35pm, claiming dozens of lives within just a few minutes, the fake bills fell to the street at 11:47pm.
Footage shot by eyewitnesses confirm this account, showing victims crushed not along the western fringes of Zhongshan Dongyilu but on the steps leading up to the riverside promenade.
There, jostling among the teeming crowd pushed some standing on the stairs down to the ground. Students standing atop the Bundside walkway, who could see the crush occurring below, yelled "move back!" in unison, but by the time the stairs were cleared it was too late for 36 of the victims.
WARNING: The following video contains some troubling images
Fearful of reprisals from angry and grief-stricken citizens, Bund 18, the building which houses M18, considerably fortified security measures in the days following the incident, posting guards at the entrance and letting pass only those who had previously made bookings at the building's establishments.
Netizens also tracked down a young woman who boasted on social media of throwing the imitation cash on the street with her friend; but they, too, have been absolved of responsibility for the fatal panic.
Instead, pure overcrowding exacerbated by poor planning from civic authorities and an entirely unprepared police force appear to be the main culprits at this point, although investigations are still ongoing.
Although far more people descended upon the Bund for New Year's Eve than for this year's 65th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic, police presence on the ground was considerably thinner: only 700 officers were present to manage crowds on the night of December 31, and commentators have voiced vexation with the fact that they appear not to have even been equipped with loudspeakers, relying instead on screaming students to prevent further loss of life.
Even accounting for the 500 additional officers called in after dozens of revelers had already been trampled or asphyxiated, the police presence along the Bund was only one-fifth of what is was on New Year's Eve last year, when 6,000 officers as well as military police managed a crowd of 300,000. Shanghai government officials were evidently surprised when a similar number showed up again this year, having been prompted by fears of overcrowding to cancel the spectacular midnight light show that drew in crowds one year ago — a move many visitors were not even aware of.
It can reasonably expected that Shanghai will soon see stringent crowd control measures like those that have been enforced in central Hong Kong ever since the New Year's Eve Stampede of 1993 that took 20 lives in the Lan Kwai Fong bar district. Sadly, however, Shanghai had to experience it's own tragedy of nearly twice the magnitude to learn the same lesson, rather than gleaming it from nearby cases not so long ago.
READ: 35 dead in New Year's stampede on Shanghai Bund after fake USD thrown from nightclub
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