Security ring thrown up around square as thousands seek to pay tribute to victims
Police set up a security cordon around Chen Yi Square to control thousands of Shanghai residents and visitors who streamed into the area to pay tribute to victims of the New Year's Eve stampede.
Police set up a security cordon around Chen Yi Square to control thousands of Shanghai residents and visitors who streamed into the area to pay tribute to victims of the New Year's Eve stampede.
Several hundred paramilitary police, carrying shields and road blocks, were seen arriving and forming lines in the square yesterday afternoon.
Mourners were allowed through a single entrance, in single file, to lay flowers on a patch of grass below the statue of Chen Yi, a famed military leader.
Thirty-six people died and at least 49 others were injured when crowds surged into the area just before midnight on December 31 and pushing broke out amid the crush.
"We feel very sad and sympathetic for the victims," said Wang Huan, a white-collar worker who came with her husband and their five-month-old daughter bearing white carnations.
"That night, my husband and I were also at the Bund, and luckily we were not affected by the stampede.
"As a parent, I can feel the heartbreak of these young victims' parents."
George Chen, a 16-year-old Shanghai native who studies in Sydney, also went to the square to pay tribute. He recalled the hostage crisis at a cafe in the Australian city in mid-December.
"Not long ago after the [incident] … in Sydney, many local residents laid white flowers to mourn the victims. I think we Shanghainese should also act to show our sadness and sympathy," he said.
The place where the stampede began - a staircase leading from the square to a viewing terrace beside the Huangpu River - remained open to the public.
At the Shanghai No 1 People's Hospital, where 12 of the injured were being treated, scores of anxious relatives were still waiting for updates on the condition of their loved ones. Wu Zongying and her husband Liang Shilin travelled by train from rural Jiangxi province to the city after learning their daughter was among the injured.
Liang Jijun, 23, had graduated from university and recently found a teaching job. The parents went from the train station to the intensive care unit.
"I was so distraught that I could not recognise my daughter at first," Wu said. "At that time, she couldn't move her eyes."
A police officer had been assigned to the couple, partly to help arrange food and accommodation, but also to ensure they did not try to protest.
Wu and Liang said they did not know what to do next but hoped to spend more time with their daughter in the ward.
A man, who said his girlfriend was being treated in the hospital, said the tragedy was avoidable. "If more police have been sent to control the crowd, the tragedy would have been prevented," said the man, who would not give his full name.
He said he fell on the stairway as people pushed down from the terrace. When he got to his feet, he saw his girlfriend lying underneath three people. Several other people were trapped beneath her. It took him five minutes to pull her out, by which time she was unconscious.
