Media caption Relatives gathered at hospitals to await news of the victims, as John Sudworth reports 
 
 China's President Xi Jinping has demanded an investigation into Shanghai's New Year's Eve crush that killed 36 people and injured 47. 
 
 The crush happened in Chenyi Square in the Bund district, where huge crowds had gathered for the countdown. 
 
 The turnout was much higher than predicted, and Shanghai police said they regretted their failure to intervene in time, state media said. 
 
 Police are investigating what sparked the crush. 
 
 The government cancelled New Year's Day festivities in Shanghai. 
 
 Xi Jinping told Shanghai officials to provide an explanation for Wednesday's fatalities as soon as possible, and to "go all out" in efforts to treat the injured, state media reported. 
 
 Mr Xi added that local officials around China should ensure that no repeat of the Shanghai incident could occur elsewhere during the upcoming Lunar New Year festival. 
 
 'Fewer police' 
 
 The crush began at about 23:35 local time (15:35 GMT) on Wednesday. 
 
 Investigations are expected to examine how Shanghai police managed the new year crowds. 
 
 Image caption Eyewitnesses described chaos at the scene as people struggled to move 
 
 Image caption A police presence remained at the site on Thursday 
 
 Official New Year celebrations had already been cancelled at the Bund due to fears of overcrowding, state-run news agency Xinhua said, citing local officials. 
 
 However, despite the cancellation, there were "far more" people in the area on Wednesday evening than predicted, with a crowd size similar to the countdown in 2013, it added. 
 
 Close to 300,000 people reportedly turned up for New Year's Eve celebrations in the area a year ago. 
 
 Shanghai police said that about 700 police officers were located in the area, and 500 were deployed after overcrowding was seen near Chenyi Square, Xinhua reported. 
 
 The police expressed regret that they had not managed to "effectively intervene" when the flow of tourists in the area "increased irregularly" at 23:30 (15:30 GMT), the news agency added. 
 
 Cai Lixin, a deputy police commander, said in quotes carried by Chinese media that there had been fewer police deployed than for some other events. 
 
 "There were no formal events planned yesterday, so we did not arrange for as many police officers as last year's national day," he said. 
 
 'People screaming' 
 
 The crush centred on a stairway leading to a viewing platform near the waterfront, as people tried to get up and down the steps, state broadcaster CCTV said. 
 
 A local resident, identified as Sarah, told AFP news agency "people were screaming... and people [started] jumping off the staircase to get clear." 
 
 She added: "There was a quiet, and then people on the stairs fell in a wave." 
 
 Image caption A memorial has been set up on the Bund 
 
 Gaby Gabriel, an American photographer living in Shanghai, told the BBC: "It was a tremendous amount of people moving in all different directions. 
 
 "It seemed some people were trying to move away from the river and some people were trying to go towards the river and there was no order whatsoever, no guidance." 
 
 However, Shanghai police denied social media reports that a stampede was triggered by people stopping to pick up fake money thrown from the balcony of a nightclub. 
 
 In a statement, police said that video footage showed that the bills had been thrown after the crush took place. 
 
 Angry relatives 
 
 Shanghai's city government said that the identification process for victims of the crush had begun. 
 
 A Taiwanese person was among the dead, and there were two Taiwanese and one Malaysian among the injured, it added. 
 
 Image caption Earlier, some relatives jostled with police as they waited for news of their loved ones in hospital 
 
 A Malaysian student in China also died in the crush, Malaysia's foreign ministry said. 
 
 Many of the dead are believed to be students, state media report. 
 
 Some relatives have criticised the authorities, saying they were not kept informed, AP news agency said. 
 
 "We were told my sister was still being rescued the minute before we were taken to the morgue, where she had been lying dead, clearly for a while,'' Cai Jinjin, whose cousin Qi Xiaoyan was among the dead, told the agency. ||||| SHANGHAI A stampede killed at least 36 people during New Year's Eve celebrations in Shanghai, authorities said, but police denied reports it was caused by people rushing to pick up fake money thrown from a building overlooking the city's famous waterfront. 
 
 The government in China's gleaming business capital said large crowds started to stampede on Chen Yi Square, in the riverside area known as the Bund, just before midnight. 
 
 It was the worst disaster in the cosmopolitan city since 58 died in an apartment building fire in 2010. 
 
 The cause of the crush has still to be confirmed, though state media and some witnesses have said it was at least partly triggered when people rushed to pick up coupons that looked like bank notes. 
 
 A man named Wu, who brought one of the 47 injured to hospital for treatment, said the fake money had been thrown down from a bar above the street as part of the celebrations. 
 
 But Shanghai police said on their official microblog that while closed-circuit television footage did show some bills had been thrown from a bar in a building overlooking the Bund, which a small number of people picked up, this did not cause the crush. 
 
 "This incident happened after the stampede," police said in a brief statement, without saying what the real cause was. 
 
 Another witness, who gave his family name as Wei, said there had been a problem away from the area where the fake bills were thrown, with people trying to get on to a raised platform overlooking the river. 
 
 Xinhua news agency said that people had been trampled on after falling down on the steps up to the platform. 
 
 "We were caught in the middle and saw some girls falling while screaming. Then people started to fall down, row by row," a witness surnamed Yin told Xinhua. 
 
 Some Chinese media outlets carried criticism of the authorities for lack of adequate policing and planning. 
 
 Police officer Cai Lixin said they did not have a large presence on the Bund as there were no formal New Year events planned, Caixin magazine said. 
 
 Foreign media were forbidden from attending a police press conference, underscoring government sensitivity about any critical coverage of disasters. 
 
 State media said many of the dead and injured were students, and 28 of the dead were women. 
 
 Authorities had shown some concern about crowd control in the days leading up to New Year's Eve. They recently cancelled an annual 3D laser show on the Bund, which last year attracted as many as 300,000 people. 
 
 On New Year's Eve, Beijing also cancelled a countdown event in the central business district, Chinese media said, due to police fears about overcrowding. 
 
 President Xi Jinping has asked the Shanghai government to get to the bottom of the incident as soon as possible, and ordered governments across the country to ensure a similar disaster could not happen again, state television said. 
 
 The Shanghai government said on its official microblog that an inquiry had begun, and that all other New Year events had been cancelled. 
 
 Photographs on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, showed densely packed crowds of revellers along the Bund where buildings from Shanghai's pre-communist heyday face the Huangpu River and house upscale restaurants, bars, shops and hotels. 
 
 In 2004, 37 people died in a stampede in northern Beijing, on a bridge at a scenic spot, during the Lunar New Year holiday. 
 
 (Aditional reporting by Pete Sweeney and Fayen Wong, and Judy Hua in BEIJING; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Mark Bendeich, Ryan Woo and Mark Trevelyan) ||||| BEIJING, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday requested an immediate investigation into the cause of a stampede that broke out during a New Year Eve celebration in downtown Shanghai. 
 
 New Year celebrations in the Bund area went astray Wednesday night, when a stampede killed at least 35 people and injured 42 others. 
 
 Xi asked the Shanghai government to "go all out" to rescue and treat the injured and properly handle the aftermath. 
 
 A profound lesson should be learned from the incident, said Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission. 
 
 Many places will hold festival gatherings and recreational activities for the upcoming Spring Festival, or the Lunar New Year, and the following Lantern Festival, he said. Xi added that local authorities should prioritize the safety of people's lives and property and make careful arrangements to ensure safety measures are in place. 
 
 Premier Li Keqiang underscored the importance of safety in public places, particularly during holidays. 
 
 Li told local authorities to "make every effort" to reduce injury-related deaths and console relatives, adding that strict precautions should be taken against major incidents, and public safety and social stability should be ensured. 
 
 The city has set up a working team for rescue operations and to deal with the aftermath. 
 
 The cause of the incident is under investigation. 
 
 A witness said that some coupons resembling U.S. dollar bills were being thrown from a building's third-floor window near the Bund, and people standing along the river bank started to scramble for them.
– The death toll from last night's stampede in Shanghai has risen to 36 as families demand answers about why so many people—hundreds of thousands—were allowed to gather in one area with so little crowd control. Among the developments: Lack of police: Authorities were worried days in advance about crowds and canceled all formal events at the riverfront area known as the Bund. As a result, "we did not arrange for as many police officers as last year's national day," says a police commander quoted by the BBC. Fake money thrown: China's Xinhua's news service quotes a witness who says someone threw coupons that looked like US dollar bills from the third floor of a building overlooking the Bund, which set off a scramble. But police quickly rejected that as the cause of the crush. "This incident happened after the stampede," said a police statement. Raised platform: A different witness says the main problem seemed to be at a different area, where throngs of people were trying to get onto a raised platform overlooking the river, reports Reuters. "We were caught in the middle and saw some girls falling while screaming. Then people started to fall down, row by row." Chinese President Xi Jinping today demanded a thorough investigation.