Mystery foreigners seen giving first aid to people hurt on Bund

A woman and a girl yesterday pay tribute to those people who lost their lives in the New Year's Eve tragedy on the Bund. The accident claimed the lives of 36 revelers and left another 49 injured. ­­— Wang Rongjiang

Several foreigners were among a small number of people trying to provide potentially life-saving first aid to people injured in the New Year's Eve crush on the Bund.

According to a report by China Youth Daily, Wu Xiaoxiao, a nurse who was in Shanghai as a tourist, said she witnessed a group of foreigners trying to help some of the people who had been hurt.

"I watched a foreign man giving emergency resuscitation for quite a long time, so I stepped in and offered to help," Wu said.

Aside from herself, a friend who is also a nurse, and the handful of foreigners, very few people tried to deliver first aid to the victims, she said.

"I don't remember how many people I helped, I just tried to keep going as long as I could," she said.

Wu said she didn't get any personal details from the foreigners, though they were all quite tall and she believed they were likely Europeans. Two of them might have been a couple, she said.

As well as Wu's acknowledgement of the efforts of the foreigners, several Internet users have praised the quick thinking of a group of locals who did their best to get the crowds to disperse.

Several young people climbed up onto platforms and yelled for people to "move back" from the worst of the crushing.

"Their simple move saved more people from becoming caught up in the disaster," a person wrote on Weibo.

One of the barkers was identified by xinmin.cn, the website of Shanghai-based Xinmin Evening News, as Xiao Jun (not his real name), who said he and about 10 other people tried to get the crowds from pressing further forward.

"I did nothing special," he said.

Other people tried to create channels through the crowds to allow the injured out and medical teams in, he said.

Another witness to the tragedy, Wu Dengmin, said that despite the horrific events, he knew that things could have been a lot worse if people had not heeded the calls from him and many others for people to "step back," The Beijing News reported yesterday.

"Without those strong voices, something much worse might have happened, The Beijing News quoted him.