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A Canadian tourist who was running down China's Great Wall accidentally knocked over an old Chinese woman on Wednesday and caused the latter's death, The Beijing News reported.

Cui Hongfang, the woman who was killed, posed for photos while visiting the Great Wall on April 8, 2015. [Photo courtesy of her family]

Cui Hongfang, a 70-year-old woman from Heilongjiang Province, was visiting the craggy Mutianyu Great Wall with family members on Wednesday morning. Around 11:30 a.m., a Canadian woman surnamed Fortin came running down the Great Wall at a high speed, said a man surnamed Song, who is the husband of Cui's niece and a witness to the tragedy.

"The foreigner moved very fast, laughing and running, and wanted to go through the small space between me and our old lady," Song said. Then Cui was hit and knocked over by the Canadian woman as she attempted to continue down the wall. Cui fell and hit the back of her head on a corner of the wall.

Ms. Chen, Cui's niece, said Cui immediately lost conscious, and a great deal of blood began running from her mouth, nose and ears. Cui died soon afterward.

Cui's second son, Sun Feng, said that although his mother was 70 years old, "she was very healthy and often went out with friends and family."

Song said the Canadian woman ran further down the wall after she knocked Cui down, but she eventually stopped and returned to the spot where the incident occurred.

Cui's relatives called the police and paramedics, but due to the Great Wall's remote location in a Beijing suburb, the paramedics did not arrive until one hour later and could not do anything to revive the old woman. Police then took the Canadian woman away for questioning.

Cui's eldest son, Sun Bin, said the police interrogated the Canadian woman and witnesses all night before informing Cui's relatives that they had determined her death was an accident, so there were no grounds for any criminal charges. The case was transferred to the public security team to be dealt with, and the police suggested that Cui's family file a civil suit.

But relatives questioned the result of the police's investigation, claiming that their decision was only based on oral evidence and alleging that the police should not release the Canadian woman from the criminal charge of involuntary manslaughter that caused wrongful death.

According to the police, the Canadian woman has bought a plane ticket to fly back to Canada on April 11. No one knows where she is now. Fortin (police only released the woman's surname) sent a fellow foreigner to check out of the hotel for her and remove her luggage yesterday afternoon.

Cui's family members are worried about how to resolve this case if the woman returns to Canada.

Beijing police said they will continue to investigate the case. According to their statement, the police regard the incident as an accident based on current evidence, but they are still investigating.

"It happened right in one of the security camera system's blind spots," said the director of the security monitoring department of the Mutianyu Great Wall Tourism Services Company. "We have rules and warnings for tourists, asking them not to chase each other, run fast or play around on the steep sections of the Great Wall."

The scenic area's authorities are now working with the police to find more evidence.

Yin Fuqiang, an attorney from Beijing Long An Law Firm, told The Beijing News that involuntary manslaughter results from the perpetrator's negligence, while an accident is due to unforeseen circumstances.

"If the Canadian woman stumbled and was not able to control her movements herself, it [should be settled in] a civil suit," Yin said, "but if she didn't stumble, then the scenic area's management should be contacted by authorities to see if they already have rules forbidding people to run on the Great Wall. If there are rules in place, then [the Canadian woman] must be held criminally liable."

Yin also suggested that if civil mediation between Cui's family and the foreigner fails, Cui's family can go to court to ask for a motion forbidding the Canadian woman to leave China since she is involved in an unfinished civil suit.

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