The death toll from an incident where a wall collapsed accidentally during the largest festival of the Yi ethnic group on Saturday night has risen to 11, local officials said on Monday.
The incident happened in Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province.
Among the dead, the youngest was only two years old. 17 others were injured with the youngest being only eight months old, according to officials from the Hani-Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Honghe.
Local people had convened at the only middle school in Yuanyang County on Saturday night to celebrate the Torch Festival. Celebrations typically involve singing, dancing and drinking around lit torches and bonfires.
These celebrations attracted about 20,000 people, many of whom climbed onto a wall, about 55 meters long and two meters high.
The wall collapsed at about 8:00 PM, killing many people standing nearby.
The celebrations were organized by Xinjie Township in Yuanyang County and funded by Yunnan Huifeng Industrial Company Limited.
The Torch Festival has been widely celebrated among many ethnic groups in southwest China and is the largest festival of the Yi ethnic group.
The Yi worship fire and the Torch Festival is a time when they use fire to chase pests away and pray for good harvests.
The Yi people, with a population of more than 6.57 million, are the largest ethnic group in China's southwestern provinces and autonomous regions of Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangxi.
(Xinhua News Agency August 2, 2005)