Home>News Center>China
       
 

Two police jailed over Miyun stampede case
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-11-26 22:10

Two police officers in charge of a police station were sentenced to three years in jail for dereliction of duty in a major stampede case in a Beijing park early this year.

A file photo shows a girl watching the lanterns in Miyun latern fair in 2003. [newsphoto]
The ruling was handed down on Friday in a trial at the Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court.

The stampede took place on Feb. 5 during the China's Spring Festival lantern festival on a bridge in Mihong Park in the Miyun County suburbs. Thirty-seven people were killed, including several who suffocated and others who fell off the bridge. Two dozen others were injured.

Many people were crowded onto the bridge in order to get a good position for watching brightly lit lanterns on display there, witnesses told the court. The accident was later proved by the procuratorate to have been the result of criminal malfeasance.

Sun Yong, who was then chief of the Miyun County police station, and Chen Bainian, then the police station commissar, failed to dispatch enough officers to guide the flow of visitors at the bridge, the court said.

When the chaos began, there were no police at the bridge to prevent the situation from getting out of control.

Earlier, another 12 people were also punished for their roles in failing to prevent the accident. They were either fired or received administrative demerits or warnings inside the Party.

Xia Qiang, secretary of the Miyun County Committee of the Communist Party of China, was disciplined within the Party over the accident. County head Zhang Wen admitted his mistake and resigned.



 
  Today's Top News     Top China News
 

170 trapped in coal mine gas explosion; 123 rescued

 

   
 

Ukraine parliament calls election invalid

 

   
 

DNA data bank to help track down criminals

 

   
 

US$25,000 in compensation for crash victim

 

   
 

Expert: SARS vaccine good so far

 

   
 

Regulations passed to prevent virus spread

 

   
  DNA data bank to help track down criminals
   
  ASEAN praises China's role in promoting ties
   
  US$25,000 in compensation for crash victim
   
  Expert: SARS vaccine good so far
   
  Regulations passed to prevent virus spread
   
  Students need support to boost their start-ups
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  News Talk  
  It is time to prepare for Beijing - 2008  
Advertisement