New Year's stampede on historic Shanghai waterfront leaves 36 dead, 47 injured

SHANGHAI -- Grieving relatives identified the bodies of loved ones a day after a stampede during New Year's celebrations along Shanghai's historic waterfront area killed 36 people. Some families lashed out at authorities, accusing them of being unresponsive to their plight and failing to prevent the disaster.

The chaos began about a half-hour before what was supposed to be a joyful celebration of the start of 2015. In the end, dozens were dead and 47 people were hospitalized, including 13 who were seriously injured, according to the Shanghai government.

Some of the victims had suffocated, said Xia Shujie, vice president of Shanghai No. 1 People's Hospital.

Seven of the injured had left hospitals by yesterday afternoon.

The stampede's cause was still under investigation. It happened at Chen Yi Square in Shanghai's old riverfront Bund area, famed for its Art Deco buildings from the 1920s and 1930s. Throngs of people often jam the area during major events.

A day after the tragedy, some criticized the government, blaming it for failing to keep order at the city's most popular site and for miscommunication with victims' relatives.

"We were told my sister was still being rescued the minute before we were taken to the morgue, where she had been lying dead -- clearly for a while," said Cai Jinjin, whose cousin Qi Xiaoyan was among the dead. "There she was, cold and all by herself."

Other victims' relatives complained that authorities failed to notify them of the deadly stampede and had been unresponsive to their requests for information.

At one of the hospitals where the injured were being treated, relatives tried to push past guards, who used a bench to hold them back. Police later allowed family members into the hospital.

A grieving mother dragged a low-ranking municipal official out from a government compound, demanding answers.

Yesterday morning, dozens of police officers were in the area and tourists continued to wander by the square, a small patch of grass dominated by a statue of Chen Yi, the city's first Communist mayor.