Reported stampede was a 'crossing of people': govt

A photographer provided RTHK's 'The Pulse' with this picture of what happened on the night.

Police deny that a stampede took place in Yau Ma Tei last month. Witnesses and firefighters spoke of a 'heap' of injured people lying in the road. File photo: RTHK

Security Secretary John Lee says a reported stampede last month – which the police deny took place – was more like a group of people trying to "cross over" each other after some had fallen down in their panic to flee.



Despite police repeatedly rejecting claims of a stampede as they chased protesters in Yau Ma Tei on November 18, the Fire Services Department had confirmed that firefighters witnessed a heap of people lying in the street.



Some 30 people were injured.



Lee revealed in Legco on Wednesday that it took more than four hours for all of those hurt in the incident on Pitt Street to be taken to hospital.



He said the first ambulance arrived at the intersection of Waterloo Road and Nathan Road at around 11:48pm. But the road was blocked with various objects, he said, and it took until about 4.30am until the last of the injured reached hospital.



Pro-democracy legislators pressed Lee on whether what took place was in fact a stampede. He told them that people running from the police ended up tripping over debris scattered in the road.



"Because there were miscellaneous items and barricades on roads, some people fell. Meanwhile, some people continued to flee. Some tried to cross those who had fallen. So it is understandable that when people were in a panic to flee, if some chose to flee in a narrow passage and they fell, it's likely that people behind them would cross over them," Lee said.



A man told RTHK last month that what he witnessed was a stampede. He said police ignored people screaming for help after they were injured, and officers prevented anyone else from assisting those hurt until firefighters arrived around 15 minutes later.



On that night, clashes had erupted between riot officers and protesters who were trying to reach people trapped inside Polytechnic University by the police.