China's senior leaders promised yesterday to investigate a stampede at a lantern festival north of the capital that killed 37 people who were celebrating the end of the Lunar New Year holiday.
Many of the victims suffocated, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Fifteen were injured and reported to be in stable condition yesterday, according to a local official who gave only her surname, Wang. Another nine were treated for "slight injuries" in the morning, Beijing city spokesman Wu Kun said.
PHOTO: AP
Revelers were crowded onto a bridge at a popular park in the northern Beijing suburb of Miyun County late on Thursday when someone tripped and triggered a chain reaction, Wu said yesterday.
Officials from President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) down expressed "deep concern," and the mayor of Beijing and the region's Communist Party chief went to the scene to supervise. Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) ordered a thorough investigation into what happened and why.
The quick involvement of top men from China's new generation of leaders reflected their promise to keep the people safe -- whether it be from economic downturn, subversion or preventable disasters.
"The safety and the stability of the capital is an overwhelming political task," Beijing Mayor Wang Qishan (
"The government at all levels must learn lessons from this accident and carry out thorough inspections to find hidden dangers that might cause future accidents," he said.
Details of the conference were released in a faxed statement from the city. Wang also ordered safety inspections of public places including hotels, supermarkets, cinemas, parks and train stations, the statement said.
Thursday's accident occurred at 7:45pm in Mihong Park just outside the town of Miyun when one person fell down on a bridge and panic ensued, Wu said.
According to the People's Daily, the Communist Party newspaper, "thousands of people" were watching the festival when the crowd stampeded.
Local media showed photos of the injured, including a young boy, his face bruised and blue, who reportedly survived after being unconscious for three hours. The identities of many victims remained unconfirmed yesterday morning, though most were believed to be local residents.
At the park, the size of four football fields, about 200 people gathered around the bridge yesterday morning to quietly watch police take measurements. The concrete-and-metal bridge, arched over a frozen river, was blocked off and appeared damaged; it was littered with jewelry, bits of broken plastic and dried wax from lanterns. Darkened red lanterns hung outside the park.
Ge Jing, a street vendor who hawks roast meat, said he feared for his family as early as Thursday afternoon because the park and the bridge were filling up rapidly with people.
"It didn't feel very stable. I told my wife and child not to come," he said.
Inside nearby Miyun County Hospital, bodies lay covered with white sheets in the lobby early yesterday. Distraught relatives emerged through the main doors and told of the heartbreaking sight.
"It's a horrible scene in there. There are more than 30 dead bodies inside," said Zhao Jingfu, whose sister-in-law died.
"My heart is in pain," he said, fighting back tears. Others emerging, who didn't give their names, said there weren't enough doctors to treat the injured.
Wen, the Chinese premier, ordered local and regional authorities "to try their best to save the injured and make suitable arrangements for the families of the dead."
It is not the only disaster to hit during what is also known as Spring Festival.
Hundreds of Chinese have been killed in car accidents during the festivities as hundreds of millions of people travel to ancestral homes and back to major cities. Others have been maimed or killed while setting off fireworks.
Miyun County, about 75km from central Beijing and technically within the administrative limits of the capital, is a large district that includes both the city and the sprawling surrounding areas.
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Young Chinese, many who fear age discrimination in their workplace after turning 35, are increasingly starting “one-person companies” that have artificial intelligence (AI) do most of the work. Smaller start-ups are already in vogue in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, with rapidly advancing AI tools seen as a welcome teammate even as they threaten layoffs at existing firms. More young people in China are subscribing to the model, as cities pledge millions of dollars in funding and rent subsidies for such ventures, in alignment with Beijing’s political goal of “technological self-reliance.” “The one-person company is a product of the AI era,” said Karen Dai
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
RSS