Monthly Archives: November 2010

Cambodia declares day of mourning for stampede dead

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BBC

Cambodia has declared Thursday a national day of mourning after at least 345 people were killed in a stampede in the capital Phnom Penh.

Hundreds more were injured when people were crushed on a small island on the final day of the Water Festival.

The stampede took place on a bridge, which eyewitnesses said had become overcrowded.

Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered an investigation into the cause of the disaster.

Hun Sen described the stampede as the “biggest tragedy” to hit Cambodia since the mass killings carried out by the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s.

He ordered all government ministries to fly the national flag at half-mast.

Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith told AFP news agency that more than 400 people had been injured.

“Most of the deaths were as a result of suffocation and internal injuries,” he said.

Authorities had estimated that more than two million people would attend the three-day festival, one of the main events of the year in Cambodia.

Panic broke out after a concert on Diamond Island, which followed a boat race on the Tonle Sap river regarded as a highlight of the festivities.

‘Sudden panic’

Sean Ngu, an Australian who was visiting family and friends in Cambodia, told the BBC too many people had been on the bridge.

He said some of the victims were electrocuted.

“There were too many people on the bridge and then both ends were pushing,” he said.

“This caused a sudden panic. The pushing caused those in the middle to fall to the ground, then [get] crushed.

“Panic started and at least 50 people jumped in the river. People tried to climb on to the bridge, grabbing and pulling [electric] cables which came loose and electrical shock caused more deaths.”

“It was packed. People were pushing each other and I fell,” Khon Sros told the Reuters news agency from her hospital bed. “People were shouting ‘go, go’,” the 19-year-old added.

She said she had been pinned in the crowd from her waist down until police pulled her out.

“One man died near me. He was weak and didn’t have enough air.”

As day broke Tuesday on Diamond Island, sunglasses, flip-flops and brightly coloured clothes lay scattered on the bridge.

Revellers lingered in tears as the bruised bodies of youths in party clothes were carried away from the bridge, which was still decked with bright lights from the festival.

Many of the dead appeared to be teenagers.

Calmette Hospital, Phnom Penh’s main medical facility, was filled with dead bodies as well as the injured, some of whom had to be treated in hallways.

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Hundreds die in tragic end to water festival

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The Phnom Penh Post

Hundreds died and hundreds more were injured last night in a stampede on Diamond Island’s north bridge, bringing a tragic close to the final day of water festival celebrations in Phnom Penh.

Prime Minister Hun Sen announced via video conference at 2:30am that 339 people had been confirmed dead and 329 injured.

“With this miserable event, I would like to share my condolences with my compatriots and the family members of the victims,” he said.

“This needs to be investigated more.”

A committee would be set up to examine the incident.

“This is the biggest tragedy since the Pol Pot regime,” he said, adding that Cambodia would hold a national day of mourning tomorrow.

The cause of the stampede has not yet been confirmed, but Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said it happened because “one million people”, many of whom were leaving the island, became “scared of something.”

Municipal Police Chief Touch Naruth also could not confirm the series of events that led to the disaster.

“People were afraid and began to trample each other and some jumped into the river,” he said at the scene.

Bedlam ensued as the frenzied crowd began to push its way off the bridge, causing a jam that made it nearly impossible to breathe, according to witnesses.

With no other escape route, hundreds of people began jumping off the suspension bridge.

Sirens started to awaken city residents minutes later as ambulances, police cars and emergency vehicles began rushing to the scene, where they had to clear away the crowd before reaching victims.

Boats were called in to pull people out of the water and ferry others across the narrow Bassac River to the shore in front of the Royal Palace, where emergency workers fought through the crowd of frantic onlookers to care for the injured.

The bodies of victims were taken away in ambulances, flat-bed trucks and motor-bikes to area hospitals as police struggled to clear away the crowd by shouting, pushing and beating them back with their belts.

As the scene cleared, many bodies remained on the road, which was littered with shoes, shirts, pants and other objects dropped in the mayhem. Pieces of cardboard were placed over the heads of those obviously dead, while bystanders fanned people thought to be still alive.

Area hospitals confirmed that hundreds were either dead on arrival or died soon after, with witnesses on hand giving various explanations for the initial cause of the stampede and the actual cause of deaths.

A doctor at Calmette hospital, who declined to give his name, said after a preliminary assessment the principal causes of death among the victims he had examined were suffocation and electrocution.

Ouk Sokhhoeun, 21, was at the scene with his sister, 23-year-old Ouk Srey Mom, who was left unconscious and taken to Calmette hospital, said that military police started firing water cannons into the crowd on the bridge after the stampede had already caused scores of people to fall unconscious.

He said the water caused many people on the bridge to receive electric shocks from the cables lighting the bridge, at which point “some police also received electric shocks”.

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Stampede in Cambodia kills hundreds, government says

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(CNN) — A stampede that occurred during a festival in Cambodia’s capital city of Phnom Penh has killed 339 people, officials said Monday.

Another 329 people were injured in the crush, said Philip Bader, a news editor with the Phnom Penh Post, citing information given by Prime Minister Hun Sen in a televised address.

Visalsok Nou, a Cambodian Embassy official in Washington, said more than 4 million people were attending the Water Festival when the stampede occurred.

But other reports put the number at 2 million., said Steve Finch, a journalist with the Phnom Penh Post.

The municipal police chief said that the stampede, which began around 10 p.m. (10 a.m. ET), likely occurred because a suspension bridge packed with people began to sway, creating panic, said Bader, who cited reports of people jumping from the bridge into the river below.

Finch said police began firing water cannon onto a bridge to an island in the center of a river in an effort to get them to continue moving across the bridge.

“That just caused complete and utter panic,” he told CNN in a telephone interview. He said a number of people lost consciousness and fell into the water; some may have been electrocuted, he said. Finch cited witnesses as saying that the bridge was festooned with electric lights, which may have played a role in the electrocutions.

The government denied anyone was electrocuted.

But a doctor who declined to be identified publicly said the main cause of death was suffocation and electrocution. Police were among the dead, Finch said.

Officers with the prime minister’s security unit stood outside a hospital trying to help those arriving with injured people and to control the scene of chaos.

In one case at a hospital, relatives of a woman who had been confirmed dead discovered she still had a pulse and she was taken into the emergency room. It was not clear whether she survived, Finch said.

Video of the scene showed hundreds of shoes, clothing and other personal items littering the streets, the bridge and the underlying water near where the festival took place.

Ambulances dropped off the injured at area hospitals and then sped away.

Outside one hospital, doctors stood trying to direct traffic so that ambulances and vehicles carrying injured were able to get through.

Dozens of people could be seen laying on what appeared to be the waiting-room floor of a hospital. They were attached to intravenous lines connected to bags strung along wires suspended in the air.

The prime minister ordered an inquiry into the cause of the day’s events and declared Wednesday a day of mourning.

The three-day festival, which began Saturday, is held each November near the palace to honor a victory by Cambodian naval forces during the 12th century reign of King Jayvarman VII, according to the country’s tourism website.

During the festival, which includes boat races, participants pray for a good rice harvest, enough rain and to celebrate the full moon, the site says.

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Hundreds dead following Water Festival bridge stampede

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Expat Advisory

At least 339 Water Festival revellers were killed according to official estimates and hundreds more were rushed to hospital following a stampede on Koh Pich (Diamond Island) bridge around 10pm last night.

Prime Minister, Hun Sen, said the death toll had reached 339 by around 2.30am but authorities are expected to revise the number upwards as the night progresses.

Witnesses said electrical wires strung from the bridge fell and electrocuted people on the bridge, causing a stampede on the narrow passageway. This could not be confirmed immediately via authorities.

Survivors were being rushed to Calmette and Russian hospitals, according to medical personnel on site.

Thousands of shoes were left behind on the bridge bearing testimony to the tragedy that unfolded in the closing moments of the traditional annual three-day festival.

Updates to follow.

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