Nine passengers hurt in rush-hour subway stampede in Shenzhen
People treated for slight injuries after chaos reportedly sparked by a woman fainting at Shenzhen Metro’s Huangbeiling Station at 8.30am on Monday
PUBLISHED : Monday, 20 April, 2015, 2:31pm
UPDATED : Monday, 20 April, 2015, 2:48pm
Alice Yan
[email protected]
The subway platform was left covered with people's shoes, bags and even partly eaten food following the rush-hour stampede at Shenzhen's Huangbeiling Station on Monday. Photo: SCMP Pictures
A rush-hour stampede in a Chinese subway – sparked when one person reportedly fainted while stepping from a train – left nine passengers injured on Monday morning, Shenzhen Evening News reports.
Those hurt suffered only slight injuries after being pushed and stepped on in the chaos at Shenzhen Metro’s Huangbeiling Station, in Guangdong province, at about 8.30am, the municipal subway operator said.
The situation had quickly become chaotic because it was the rush hour and a large number of people had been waiting on the platform to board the next train, the authorities said.
Debris, including bags, shoes, half-eaten food and mobile phones were left lying on the ground after the crush had eased and the platform had been cleared of passengers, the newspaper reported.
The stampede started as passengers began leaving a subway train that had just arrived on Line 5.
The newspaper reported that it was still unclear exactly had caused the chaos, but it appeared that it was triggered after a passenger collapsed while leaving the train that had just arrived.
A female passenger, writing later on her social media website, said the screams of a woman had sparked the stampede as hundreds of people suddenly started to run towards her like a “flood”.
The woman added in her blog that she felt lucky not to have been injured in the stampede, which reportedly lasted for about two minutes.
“Then the situation became less chaotic and the next train arrived,” she said.
“When I got on the train I saw a lady of about 50 looking very pale, who was barefoot after losing her shoes and also her bag. It was very scary.”
The newspaper reported that two security guards working near the scene, and a number of comments by bloggers had alleged that subway authorities had failed to deal with the problem appropriately.
