SHANGHAI – Relatives of those killed in a stampede on New Year’s Eve in Shanghai will each receive [pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]800,000 Yuan (128,844 dollars) in compensation, news reports said on Thursday.
Shanghai deputy mayor, Zhou Bo said at a press conference in Shanghai.
The local government officials said that those injured would also receive compensation.
No fewer than 36 people were killed and 49 injured after panic broke out 25 minutes before midnight on New Year’s Eve at a crowded square along the city’s famed Huangpu River waterfront.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”8″]
The city officials said that many were crushed when crowds trying to move up a staircase clashed with others trying to move down it.
“We are greatly grieved, feel very guilty and in deep self-accusation,’’Bo said.
Family members told newsmen that they believed high-level city officials should be held responsible for the incident that could have been avoided with better policing and contingency planning.
Four Huangpu district officials were fired after a city government investigation found they were largely responsible for the tragedy.
Meanwhile, no senior municipal government officials have been punished so far.
The investigation report revealed that 771 police and 180 security guards were deployed for the new year event monitoring a crowd which had reached 310,000 by 11 pm that evening.
The report said that at Chen Yi square, where the stampede broke out, they were only 60 officers there.
“Police failed to expect the number of people for this event,’’ Shanghai’s Huangpu branch police Deputy Commander, Cai Lixin was quoted as saying this month by the China News Service. (dpa/NAN)
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