PHNOM PENH |
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A stampede on a bridge in Cambodia's capital killed at least 345 people when thousands panicked, pinning and trampling revelers on the last day of a festival marking the end of the rainy season.
The stampede began late on Monday on a small bridge lined with lights connecting Phnom Penh to an island where a crowd of mostly young people had gathered to celebrate the water festival and watch a concert.
Survivors said panic set in when shouts went up that several people had been electrocuted. Police said some people also shouted that the bridge was about to collapse as thousands of people were heading back to the city center.
The victims suffocated or were trampled and some survivors said they were wedged into the crowd of living and dead for hours. Police sprayed water so survivors could drink, some said.
"People were shouting that someone had been electrocuted, to run back," Touch Loch, 18, told Reuters. "I fell and people stepped on me until I passed out. When I woke I was here in hospital."
"People were crying for their fathers and mothers."
State television said at least 240 of the dead were women.
Khon Sros, 19, said from her hospital bed some people had leapt off the bridge to escape but 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."
Touch Theara, 38, said she had been stuck in the crowd for three hours: "I thought I was dead ... Police sprayed water at us. We were just opening our mouths to drink."
Prime Minister Hun Sen apologized for the disaster in which at least 329 people were hurt. He ordered an investigation as television footage showed relatives weeping over the bodies of the dead piled one on top of the other.
"This is the biggest tragedy in more than 31 years after the Pol Pot regime," he said, referring to the Khmer Rouge, whose agrarian revolution from 1975-1979 killed an estimated 1.7 million people in Cambodia under the command of Pol Pot.
He declared Thursday a day of mourning.
ROWS OF DEAD
Emergency crews carried lifeless bodies and laid them out in rows for identification.
Article Courtesy: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AL5AV20101123?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FworldNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+International%29
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