36 Killed In New Year's Stampede In China

Thirty-six people have been killed in a stampede at a New Year's event on Shanghai's historic waterfront.

Forty-seven more people were injured, 13 of them seriously, in the chaos, city officials said.

The disaster happened shortly before midnight on Wednesday as people packed the Bund area to usher in 2015.

TThThThe official news agency Xinhua said a Taiwanese person was among the dead, and that 25 of those killed were women.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has demanded an immediate investigation.

It was not immediately clear what triggered the stampede, but state media and a witness said the incident was caused when people tried picking up fake money thrown from a building.

A man who brought one of the injured to a local hospital for treatment said fake money had been thrown down from a bar above the street as part of a New Year's celebration.

People rushed to pick up the money, triggering the stampede, said the man, who declined to be identified.

But Xinhua reported that surveillance footage showed the notes had been thrown after the stampede, at 11.47 pm, citing the Shanghai police official microblog.

Local TV reported authorities were investigating the money-throwing incident, but attributed the cause of the stampede to people slipping and falling in crowded conditions.

In an unusually critical commentary, Xinhua said the tragedy was a "wake-up call that the world's second-largest economy is still a developing country which has fragile social management."

Authorities had shown some concern about crowd control in the days leading up to New Year's Eve.

They had cancelled an annual 3D laser show on the Bund that last year attracted around 300,000 people.

The historic riverfront strip runs along an area of narrow streets surrounded by restored old buildings, shops and tourist attractions.