Chaos at Chinese train station as 100,000 people caught in crush

Huge crowds at Guangzhou
Reuters
Mark Chandler2 February 2016

These astonishing pictures show the chaos at a Chinese station as 100,000 people were left stranded while travelling to New Year celebrations.

Huge crowds of people found themselves stuck at Guangzhou’s main station in southern China as snowy weather caused havoc on large sections of the country’s rail system.

Local media reported long, snaking queues outside the terminal, with some left waiting for over 10 hours due to the number of delayed trains.

Others had got to the station up to two days early, ignoring official advice to only turn up three hours before departure, in a bid to avoid disruption caused by freezing weather in northern and central China.

Crowds at Guangzhou's main station
Reuters

Many of those stuck were said to be migrant workers who are trying to get home for Chinese New Year on February 8.

Authorities deployed thousands of security guards at the station to help manage the vast crowds, state media reported.

The station had expected around 176,000 to pass through yesterday, but one passenger told state broadcaster CCTV: “There are too many people and it is too crowded.”

Across the country, around 2.9 billion trips are expected to be made over a 40 day period leading up to March 3 for the nation’s Spring Festival.

Chinese New Year is the world's biggest annual migration of people Reuters
Reuters

Most of those journeys are taking place in the coming weeks as people head off to see their loved ones and welcome in the Year of the Monkey.

The annual event is often described as the world’s largest migration. Incredibly, the number of journeys this year is still down from the new year peak in 2014, which saw 3.6 billion trips made.

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