Recalling deadly Hong Kong New Year 1993 stampede that killed 20 in Lan Kwai Fong

Hong Kong awoke to tragedy on January 1, 1993: “20 Dead In Crush Of New Year Revellers”, ran the front-page headline of the South China Morning Post.

“Up to 20 people were reported to have been killed and more than 100 injured in a stampede involving some of the 20,000 in Lan Kwai Fong in Central for New Year celebrations last night,” the story continued. “The crush occurred when people surged out into the streets from the district’s restaurants and bars as the countdown to midnight was being broadcast live on TVB.

“At the stroke of midnight, the crowd cheered and threw beer on one another, apparently causing some of them to panic and start pushing and shoving. The worst casualties occurred at the junction of Wellington Street and Wing Wah Lane where a slope and some steps caused people to trip under pressure.”

Witnesses at a Wan Chai hospital described dozens of ambulances deposi­t­ing the injured in corridors while 20 ambulances were said to have ferried 31 of the injured to Queen Mary Hospital. At the scene, “a large number of people were shocked and dazed and a lot of them were crying. The streets were litter­ed with articles of cloth­ing, jewellery, boots, cans and bottles,” following “one of the worst civil disas­ters in Hongkong’s history”.

In what appears to have been a lapse in judgement by editors at the newspaper, the same story conti­nued with a round-up of the night’s joyous events.