Shanghai stampede victim families to receive USD130,000 compensation

A man prays after laying flowers at the site of a New Year’s Eve deadly stampede in Shanghai

The Shanghai government will pay Rmb800,000 (USD130,000) to each of the families of the 36 revelers who died in the New Year’s Eve stampede on the city’s historic Bund, after 11 government officials were ​punished for failing to take adequate steps to prevent the disaster, the Financial Times reported.
According to the newspaper, the 49 people injured would receive payouts according to the severity of their injuries, state media said. The tragedy, which a government investigation had blamed on poor urban management, has dealt a serious blow to the image of Shanghai, one of China’s showcase cities which Beijing hopes to develop as a global financial center to rival New York, London and Hong Kong.
The ​compensation ​announcement came ​after results of a government investigation were announced​ on Wednesday, including the sacking of four top officials of Huangpu, the district where the stampede took place. The investigation appeared to exonerate more senior Shanghai municipality and Communist party officials.
As stated by the FT, municipality officials, when asked at a press conference on Wednesday why more senior ​city officials did not share blame for the incident, said the law stipulated direct responsibility lay with the district government. Beijing has appeared to distance itself from the incident and it is not clear whether there will be further political fallout for municipal officials.
Several district officials were also censured yesterday for consuming an elaborate banquet ​at public expense ​at a luxury sushi bar on the evening of the stampede.
A government investigation highlighted five errors that had contributed to the disaster, including underestimating the size of the crowd and sending only 450 police and 100 crowd management staff to the event and failure to monitor the size of the crowd in a timely manner.
Public criticism has also focused on the fact that the closest underground station was not closed as it normally is on New Year’s eve and that emergency services were slow to respond to treat the injured.