Three people have died and 31 others were injured, seven
severely, in a stampede triggered by sales promotion in a Carrefour
outlet in southwest China Saturday.
The three-day promotion at the outlet in the Shapingba District,
Chongqing Municipality, was launched Friday to
celebrate the 10th anniversary of Carrefour's entering into the
market of the city.
People began queuing at the entrance around 4:00
AM?Saturday, waiting to buy a kind of cooking oil with a much
favorable price, said Gao Chang, spokesman for the government of
Shapingba District.
The shop offered a deduction of 11.5 yuan (US$1.5) from the
original price of 51.4 yuan (US$6.9) for a five-liter bottle of the
edible oil.
Around 8:40 AM when the shop started its business, throngs of
people burst in and a mass stampede occurred.
He Yu, one of the shoppers combating for the cooking oil, got
bruises in his face and hands in the stampede.
"I rushed to the oil shelf with other people and grabbed four
bottles. Suddenly I was tripped over on the floor. Luckily I got
hold of another person and escaped from being crashed," the young
man said.
The injured people are being treated in four hospitals in the
city.
By 9:00 p.m., three had been discharged from hospital, but one
of the seven seriously injured reported critical condition.
"The outlet has been ordered to suspend operation and the work
safety watchdog has started an investigation," said Gao.
The outlet has also been told to prepare money to compensate the
victims.
The district government issued an urgent notice late Saturday,
saying that all departments and organizations in the district must
take effective precautionary measures to prevent such things from
happening again while organizing public activities.
French retailer giant Carrefour has opened 103 supermarkets in
China since it entered the Chinese market in 1995. The latest
outlet was opened on Nov. 1 this year in Changchun, capital of
northeast China's Jilin Province.
Carrefour entered the market of Chongqing in 1998 and now
operates four outlets in the city.
The Shapingba outlet, covering a business area of 7,000 square
meters, was opened in May last year as the fourth supermarket of
Carrefour in Chongqing.
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(Xinhua News Agency November 11, 2007)