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11/22/2024 12:01:02 am

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Canadian Tourist Accidentally Knocked Off Elderly Chinese To Death At Great Wall

Cui Hongfang

(Photo : Chna.org) This is the last photo of Cui Hongfang, the elderly Chinese woman who was accidentally knocked off and killed by a female Canadian tourist.

A 37-year-old Canadian woman collided on Wednesday with a 73-year-old Chinese woman on the Great Wall. The elderly woman died after her head hit the wall.

The female Canadian tourist was rushing down a flight of stairs at the iconic Beijing landmark and knocked her to the ground. The Canadian woman was only identified by her surname, which is Fortin.

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China.org identified the victim as Cui Hongfang from Heilongjiang Province. Prior to the accident, she posed for a photo by the great landmark. The family provided the photo to China.org.

The Canadian woman was moving very fast, according to Song, the husband of the victim's niece. "She was chasing (someone) and laughing and wanted to go between me and my wife," he said, quotes Globalnews.

The victim immediately became unconscious after hitting her head on the corner of the Great Wall, recounts Chen, the niece. Blood oozed from Chen's mouth, ears and nose and then she stopped breathing. Prior to the accident, the woman was in good health, said her second son, Sun Feng.

Fortin ran farther down the wall after the accident, but she eventually stopped and returned to where she collided with Cui.

It took paramedics one hour to arrive because of the Great Wall's remote location. But their efforts failed to revive Cui.

The police took Fortin for questioning. But after the interrogation of the Canadian woman and other witnesses, they declared the death as an accident, said Sun Bin, the eldest son of the victim.

According to the director of the security monitoring department of the Mutianyu Great Wall Tourism Services Company, the spot is a security camera blind spot.

"We have rules and warning for tourists, asking them not to chase each other, run fast or play around on the steep sections of the Great Wall," China.org quotes the director.

However, authorities also advised the Chinese man to seek compensation by filing a civil suit. Canada's Foreign Affairs Department said it is providing consular assistance to the Canadian woman.

However, the latest report said that Fortin has bought a plane ticket for April 11 and has asked someone to get her luggage from her hotel on Friday afternoon, leaving Cui's family puzzled how they could run after her.

A Beijing lawyer believes it should be a criminal case and not a civil suit because the latter should be if Fortin stumbled and failed to control her movement, while the accounts indicate she violated Great Wall safety rules, which makes it a criminally liable offense.


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