Sanya Mall Apologizes After Crowd Injuries in Red Envelope Chaos

Caption: At the scene of the incident

A shower of red envelopes raining from the upper floors of a shopping mall in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, turned chaotic on October 3, leaving several people injured and prompting an apology from the mall.

The giveaway, part of Joy City's anniversary celebrations, drew huge crowds as attendees scrambled to grab the falling envelopes.

Videos circulating online show crowds surging and shouting as red envelopes rained down from the upper floors, with some people tripping and falling amid the scramble.

Witnesses said even children were caught in the crush, and some suffered bruised or swollen feet, according to thepaper.cn.

In an October 4 statement, Joy City admitted its crowd control had been inadequate and said it has replaced the event with an offline raffle using numbered queues.

The incident has sparked heated discussion on social media, with many accusing the mall of poor organization and deceptive marketing after discovering that most of the "red envelopes" contained only red paper slips.