Child and Parents Killed, More Injured, After Sign Falls on Busy Shanghai Road

Janita Kan
8/14/2018
Updated:
8/14/2018

A shop’s signboard suddenly toppled on a busy sidewalk in Shanghai’s business district on Aug. 12, killing three people and injuring six.

Police surveillance video of the moment when the board fell was released, showing a thick signboard with yellow text break off and plummet down onto the crowd below amid heavy rain.

Witnesses told local media that the three killed were a young child, a woman, and a man.

“One (of the dead) was a kid, about five, maximum six years old. And there was a woman about 30 years old, probably the mother. Another one was a man in 40s. All were very young,” one witness said.

Authorities said that the additional six people hit by the falling signboard did not sustain life-threatening injuries, reported Channel News Asia. The board took 16 people to lift off the victims.
Parts of China’s east coast have been hit by Typhoon Yagi, requiring the evacuation of more than 200,000 people, reported Reuters.
An investigation into the incident has been launched.

Death Caused By Faulty Equipment

In June, at least four people were killed from electrocution on the streets of southern China amid heavy rains due to faulty or poorly maintained electrical equipment.

The four deaths all took place on June 8, at different locations.

A man was found dead, lying motionless on a flooded street in Zhaoqing City in southern China’s Guangdong Province, reported Chinese news portal Sohu. He likely died due to electrical leakage from an unknown source.

Around 5 p.m., a 17-year-old student at a local transportation vocational school died of electrocution while walking in the rain at Baiyun District in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, reported state-run media Xinhua.

At 7 p.m., a 30-year-old mother and her 10-year-old daughter were both electrocuted at Chancheng District in Foshan City located in Guangdong Province, reported Hong Kong news website Initium Media. The electricity came from an electrical switch box at a nearby bus stop. They lay motionless in the water for about 30 minutes before authorities arrived.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Additional reporting by Frank Fang.
From NTD.tv