THE Shanghai Oriental Sports Center has withdrawn from this year’s Color Run due to safety concerns in the wake of the deadly inferno at a Taiwan water park.

One of the key features of the event is the throwing of colored powder, similar to that which sparked Saturday’s blaze, which left one person dead and almost 500 others injured.

Wang Wei, the center’s deputy director, told Shanghai Daily yesterday that the organizers were aware of the fire risk ahead of last year’s Color Run.