Man-made disasters in China in 2015

On New Year's Eve 2014, a stampede broke out during a celebration on Shanghai's popular Bund harbor front, killing 36 people. Witnesses said the stampede began as some people tried to climb onto a platform overlooking the river, while others were trying to get down, creating panic and confusion.

The authorities admitted responsibility for the tragedy, noting the lack of preventive preparations, site management and improper response to the stampede. Some Huangpu District officials were punished afterwards; they were dining in an expensive restaurant when the accident took place. The photo shows impatient relatives of those injured trying to get into the emergency department in a hospital.

The cruise ship "Oriental Star" capsized in Yangtze River in the evening on 1 June, killing 442 of the 454 people on board. The sinking was China's worst shipping disaster since 1949.

Rescue efforts were difficult, not just because of current, winds and waves, but also owing to the large numbers of elderly passengers and pensioners on board. Passengers' relatives raised questions about why the captain, who was among the 12 survivors, went ahead with the voyage in heavy rain and a thunderstorm. A government report also cited the ship for safety issues two years ago.

A series of massive explosions in the port city of Tianjin in August killed at least 170 people and injured hundreds of others. Firefighters accounted for half of the casualties. The largest explosion's force was equivalent to roughly 21 tons of TNT, according to state media Xinhua.

The explosions occurred in a warehouse that handled large amount of hazardous chemicals. Safety standards at the warehouse were later questioned. The government was blamed for lax control of chemical facilities and poor management of chemical industrial parks. Some water samples from the quarantine zone around the blast site showed sodium cyanide levels far above the safe limits.

A mountain of construction waste soil swept through an industrial park in Shenzhen on December 20, burying and damaging at least 33 buildings. At the time of publication, 76 people were still listed as officially missing. Rescue teams were still searching the rubble, even finding two survivors 72 hours after the landslide.

Citing local residents, state media Xinhua said the debris and excavated soil had been piled up on an old quarry site for years. Heavy rains turned added weight and viscosity to the construction waste, triggering the landslide.