Shanghai officials fired over New Year’s Eve stampede

Shanghai has fired four top district officials for insufficient preparation and response to the New Year's Eve stampede that killed 36 people, the city government announced Wednesday.

Investigation results released by the Shanghai government also noted that some of the officials responsible were at an opulent banquet the night of the disaster, hampering the response and adding to public discontent.

Caixin magazine reported on Monday that district officials dined at a Japanese restaurant on the historic Bund riverfront owned by the Shanghai government, where average prices range from $305 to $628 per person.

"The Shanghai Municipal Disciplinary Inspection Committee takes this allegation very seriously and verifies that an investigation is underway," said Xinhua, the official China news agency on Wednesday, quoting an unidentified committee official.

The agency has been critical of Shanghai officials since the disaster, asking why there were apparently so few police on duty for the tens of thousands on the Bund.

"It was a lack of vigilance from the government, a sloppiness," the news agency wrote.

The report blames 11 Huangpu District officials for insufficient precautions, poor site management and congestion at the scene of the stampede in the city's historic riverfront Bund area.

The district's Communist Party secretary, government chief, police chief and deputy police chief have been fired and seven other officials have been demoted or otherwise disciplined, Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Supervision Deputy Director Wang Yu told a news conference.

The stampede took place about half an hour before midnight on Dec. 31 on the concrete steps of a riverfront area that has become a site for counting down the arrival of the New Year.

Local authorities had canceled an annual laser show the week before the incident, citing problems controlling the record crowd of 300,000 spectators in 2013, according to local English-language newspaper Shanghai Daily.

The report said a scaled-back version of the event would be held instead, but that it would not be open to the general public. Officials may not have expected such large numbers on the Bund after the light show was canceled.

Three dozen people, including a 12-year-old boy, were trampled and asphyxiated amid the crowd of hundreds, in the worst disaster to hit one of China's showcase cities in recent years.

Relatives of the victims have questioned whether authorities adequately notified the public that the show had been canceled. They also have questioned whether police and medics responded effectively after the stampede.

President Xi Jinping called for an immediate investigation into the causes of the stampede. At the same time, the Shanghai government moved to tightly control expressions of grief and protests from victims' families.

Al Jazeera and wire services