14 killed in stampede at mosque in northwest China

[News_Editor]

GUYUAN, CHINA (BNO NEWS) -- Fourteen people were killed Sunday when a stampede occurred while traditional food was being handed out as part of a religious ceremony at a mosque in northwest China, local authorities said on Monday. Ten others were injured, some of them seriously.

The incident happened at around 1 p.m. local time on Sunday at the Beida mosque near the city of Guyuan in Xiji county, located in the autonomous region of Ningxia in China's northwest. It occurred as a record number of worshippers attended the annual ceremony because it fell on the weekend.

The regional government said traditional cakes were being handed out to the participants when the stampede occurred, killing 14 people and injuring 10 others. Mao Minna, whose daughter was among the injured, told the state-run Xinhua news agency that people trampled each other as they rushed for the food.

"Currently, the injured are in a stable condition, but four seriously injured people have been transferred to Guyuan City Hospital for treatment," a spokesperson for the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region government said. "The fourteen deceased have been taken home in preparation for their burials."

Authorities met on Monday to discuss the incident and blamed the stampede on poor organization and insufficient management, urging for an increase in religious oversight to avoid similar incidents in the future. They also pledged to carry out a "safety overhaul" during the first quarter of the year, Xinhua said.

(Copyright 2014 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: [email protected].)

[folium]

"blamed the stampede on poor organization and insufficient management, urging for an increase in religious oversight to avoid similar incidents in the future"....

perhaps this is just the Dutch-English translation care of BNO, but I do love the concept of "religious oversight" to avoid future problems. Isn't that what most gods' purport to offer? Must be the fact that it was a mosque that explains why the oversight failed on this occasion....

[Steely Dan]

I didn't realize the local cuisine was that good, or bad.

[Sceptict11]

Could not have happened in a better place!

Guess the "evil" West will somehow be blamed

[Credo]

It's not very nice to say that it couldn't happen at a better place. I don't know that these particular people deserved anything bad. I think if they are upset they won't blame the west. They will probably blame the Chinese gov't, if they blame anybody.

[simple1]

It's not very nice to say that it couldn't happen at a better place. I don't know that these particular people deserved anything bad. I think if they are upset they won't blame the west. They will probably blame the Chinese gov't, if they blame anybody.

+1 From the OP they were ordinary families attending a traditional festival at a mosque. To applaud the deaths of innocent civilians is an ugly manifestation of bigotry

[Scott]

An inflammatory post has been deleted. Please don't feed the troll.

[georgenelson]

Yes it's my request to delete the post. I am feeling very sad on reading this post.

[Tchooptip]

Chinese+Muslim I guess coud hardly make cool headed people

[simple1]

Chinese+Muslim I guess coud hardly make cool headed people

There have been news reports that three Chinese officials have already been arrested for poor planning and crowd control that contributed to the deaths. This is not unique to Chinese Muslims, other countries have had poor crowd control that has led to deaths. Rather than listing every incident a few examples that includes an incident in Thailand when 19 people died.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/black-friday-deaths-and-disasters-show-1452562

http://www.crowdsafe.com/FruinCauses.pdf

Edited January 12, 2014 by simple1