First-hand record of a dreadful tragedy

I ARRIVED at Lan Kwai Fong around 11.45 on Thursday, December 31, with a couple of friends. We'd arranged to meet some people outside D'Aguilar's bar, but soon saw the crowd was far too large for us to get down there by midnight.

We started making our way through the crowd, towards Bit Point. A few minutes before 12, we found ourselves stuck. The crowd had become so large, that nobody could move anywhere. Neither of us gave any thought towards what would soon be happening.

At 12 things started to go crazy. People had been spraying party string and foam before, but now some were throwing beer, bottles and cans into the air.

I pointed out the dangerous consequences that this may have to one guy who was doing this, who said he would ''punch my face in'', and that was that.

I saw some of my friends standing outside D'Aguilar's, and bellowed ''Happy New Year!'' at the top of my voice. They motioned with their hands for my friends and I to go over, so we started making our way through the crowd.

At about 12.05 am, on January 1, we found ourselves stuck in the square where all the streets meet in Lan Kwai Fong. Suddenly, people from behind us started pushing. I heard screams to stop, I didn't have an inch of space in which to move. My elbow was digging into the face of a little Chinese girl, who was crying, no, screaming. I couldn't move it.