Zuo Zhijian says the heavy crush of bodies around him on the Shanghai waterfront left him unable to move his legs.
"I also had someone grabbing my hair from the back, struggling and breathing heavily," Zuo said. "A girl in front of me held me desperately and said, 'Help me, help me, please. I can't make it anymore.' There was also a girl completely motionless underneath."
Zuo was one among many people caught up in the stampede on the Bund, an area along the Huangpu River in China's most populous city that draws big crowds for New Year's Eve festivities. He described his traumatic experience on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform on which he's a verified user. The stampede, which began roughly 25 minutes before midnight, killed 36 people and injured 47 others, the Shanghai city government said. Many of the victims were female students, state media reported.