At least 35 dead, 42 injured in Shanghai New Year's stampede

[BEIJING] At least 35 people were killed and 42 were injured in a stampede during a New Year's celebration in Shanghai, on the city's famed waterfront tourist strip known as the Bund, Chinese media reported.

The official Xinhua news agency said that large crowds in Chen Yi Square on the Bund led to the stampede, which happened just before midnight, with authorities working to rescue and aid the wounded.

It was not immediately clear what triggered the stampede. Xinhua said many of the injured were students.

Photographs on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, showed densely packed crowds of revelers along the Bund, which is lined with buildings from Shanghai's pre-communist heyday along the bank of the Huangpu River.

In some photographs, rescue workers were seen trying to resuscitate victims lying on the pavement while ambulances waited nearby.

Authorities had shown some concern about crowd control in the days leading up to New Year's eve. They recently cancelled an annual 3D laser show on the Bund that last year attracted as many as 300,000 people.

REUTERS