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Lunar New Year fireworks frenzy kills 36
(AFP/Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-01-31 09:06
Fireworks explosions killed 36 people and injured hundreds more in China as
traditional Lunar New Year celebrations led to much mayhem as well as joy across
the nation, officials and state media said.
In the most serious accident, 36 people at a temple fair in the central
province of Henan were killed on New Year's Day Sunday when a nearby store room
full of fireworks exploded, Xinhua news agency said.
The scene of the fireworks blasts is seen in
Central China's Henan Province on January 31,
2006.[Xinhua] | The accident, in a mountainous area of Anyang city, injured up to 48 other
people, it said, quoting sources with the local government. Sixteen were
initially reported to have been killed but the death toll rose after more
bodies were discovered during clear-up operations and some victims died of their
injuries, the news agency said.
In the capital Beijing, where a 12-year ban on Lunar New Year fireworks had
just been lifted, the government reported 112 people were treated at hospital
emergency rooms over the weekend for fireworks-related injuries.
Fireworks are lit during loud celebrations
moments after midnight in an old Beijing neighborhood near the ancient
Bell Tower. [AFP] | Seventeen people suffered
serious eye injuries, the State Administration of Work Safety said in a
statement. Another 26 were admitted to hospitals with various types of other
wounds, it said.
More than 60 people were treated at Beijing's Tongren Hospital, which is the
city's number one medical facility for eye care, the Beijing News reported.
"On New Year's Eve alone, we had more than 40 injuries and among them there
were around a dozen people with serious injuries," the paper quoted hospital
assistant director Tian Jian as saying.
In China's southwestern Chongqing city, where the fireworks ban was also
lifted after 12 years, firefighters rushed to extinguish nearly 200 fires caused
by fireworks on New Year's Eve, the Xinhua news agency reported.
"There were 191 fires caused by fireworks overnight on New Year's Eve ... a
record for the city," Xinhua quoted a local fireworks official as saying.
Chinese worshippers pray and offer incense at
a temple during the second day of the Lunar New Year festival in Beijing
January 30, 2006.[Reuters] | "Around 3,000
firefighters gave up the chance to spend the New Year with their families to
remain on duty the whole time ... they have been under enormous pressure."
However, Chongqing officials said there had been no reports of injuries.
A ban on fireworks, which are traditionally believed to ward off evil spirits
and ghosts trying to enter the new year, was put in place across 200 cities in
China in 1994 due to safety and environmental pollution concerns.
The ban was lifted last year for more than 100 cities after authorities said
the industry had been cleaned up to ensure higher safety standards. The ban was
lifted in Beijing and many other cities this year.
In Beijing, a city of 15 million people, the sounds of huge explosions have
for days thundered through the alleyways of traditional courtyard districts as
well as the modern areas of new condominiums and office high-rises.
The city's streets have been left littered with used fireworks, with the
Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau reporting 458 tonnes of such waste
collected on New Year's Day alone, according to the Beijing News Daily.
However, amid the fireworks mayhem, state press reported China's 1.3 billion
people were largely enjoying the festivities, with celebrations to continue
throughout all of this week's worth of public holidays.
Tens of thousands of people flocked to temples in Beijing on Sunday and
Monday.
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