Photos: Shanghai New Year's Eve stampede leaves at least 36 dead & 47 injured

At least 36 people have been killed in a stampede during the New Year's celebrations in Shanghai, which may have been caused by the crowd rushing to grab fake money thrown from a bar balcony.

Another 47 injured people were hospitalised after the fatal crush in Chen Yi Square in the city's waterfront Bund area, which attracted 300,000 people last New Years Eve and is notorious for severe congestion at major events.

The stampede just before midnight is the city's worst disaster since 58 died in an apartment building fire in 2010.

State media and witnesses said it was at least partly caused when people tried picking up coupons that looked like bank notes, the Reuters news agency reported.

A man who brought one of the 47 injured to hospital for treatment said fake money had been thrown down from a bar above the street as part of the New Year's Eve celebrations.

People rushed to pick up the coupons, triggering the stampede, said the man, who gave his family name as Wu.

Cui Tingting, 27, said she had picked up some of the bank notes but had thrown them away when she realised they were fake.

'It's too cruel,' she said. 'People in front of us had already fallen to the floor, and others were stepping all over them'.