China     

Shocked victims describe sudden, chaotic violence

Shanghai Daily, September 28, 2011

• Mao said the carriage was full of passengers, with the seats all occupied and many people standing. She and her family were all sitting. She said she was thrown against other passengers during the sudden braking, "hitting others on their heads to cause bleeding, and was eventually knocked against the iron protection rails," which broke her arm.

  "The lights went off all of a sudden and the air-conditioning system also broke," said Mao's daughter, Mao Ying, 36.

  "For the 15 minutes that we had been trapped inside, many passengers in the other carriages that had no ventilation systems felt dizzy and hard to breathe."

  She said a man in his 70s suddenly collapsed and he was later helped by a batch of passengers who carried him to the train's first carriage, opening up the driver's cab and letting him lie down near a broken window.

  "It was complete chaos when the accident happened with everyone falling, screaming in the dark, tilted carriage," said the husband, Hou. "And that's when a passenger claiming to be a Metro official stood out, telling us to crouch down, stay calm and wait for rescue."

  Hou said the young man helped some elderly passengers up and took them to the driver's cab for fresh air, but he said the passengers were all told not to climb out of the train in case of another accident.

  Many riders from the rear carriages of their train swarmed to the front, afraid of a new crash caused by any following train.

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