Millions of Chinese workers battled for a precious train ticket home today as authorities in Guangzhou struggled to keep order following a stampede for seats.
Police were unable to control a crowd surging to board a train and in the chaos a woman fell and was trampled.
The savage winter snows and freezing temperatures that have brought much of the nation to a standstill have transformed the southern city of Guangzhou in particular into a seething mass of frustrated humanity.
Some 2,000 riot and army police fought to hold back crowds of hundreds of thousands of mainly migrant workers on the train platforms.
For many, the Lunar New Year holiday is the only chance to escape to their families from their toil in the factories of southern China.
As Premier Wen Jiabao urged people to be brave amid the worst winter in 50 years, they waited exhausted and desperate amid growing piles of rubbish and human waste.
The blizzards and icy temperatures that have lasted nearly three weeks have stranded millions of people at airports, railway stations and bus depots in China's south, central and eastern regions.
The weather has destroyed crops, hit industrial production, disrupted coal and food supplies and led to power blackouts.
The crisis has prompted China to dispatch more than one million troops and 65,500 medical workers to deliver relief. So far, the medics have treated more than 200,000 ill and injured people, the health ministry said.
