Hundreds killed in Cambodia stampede

BANGKOK — More than 300 people were killed and hundreds more were injured in a stampede at an annual water festival in Cambodia that the prime minister Tuesday called the nation's worst tragedy since the murderous Khmer Rouge regime more than three decades ago.

Witnesses in Phnom Penh, the capital, said the stampede began Monday night when people panicked in a dense crowd on a small island close to the shore of the Bassac River.

Hundreds of people tried to escape over a short suspension bridge. Many died of suffocation, were crushed underfoot or were electrocuted by loose wires. Many drowned when they leapt from the suspension bridge into the water.

The government television station said 395 people had been killed and 500 injured.

"This is the biggest tragedy in more than 31 years since the Pol Pot regime," Prime Minister Hun Sen said in one of several television announcements through the night, referring to the mass killings of the Khmer Rouge whose radical policies are blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million people during the 1970s.

Authorities had estimated that upward of 2 million people would descend on Phnom Penh for the three-day water festival, the Bon Om Touk, which marks the end of the rainy season and whose main attraction is traditional boat races along the river.

The last race ended Monday evening, the last night of the holiday, and the panic started later on Koh Pich — Diamond Island — a long spit of land wedged in a fork in the river where a concert and exhibition were being held. Soft-drink vendor So Cheata said the trouble began when about 10 people fell unconscious in the press of the crowd. She said that set off a panic, which then turned into a stampede, with many people caught underfoot.

Seeking to escape the island, part of the crowd pushed onto a bridge, which also jammed up, with people falling under others and into the water. So Cheata said hundreds of hurt people lay on the ground afterward. Many appeared to be unconscious.

There was no confirmation of the cause of the stampede, but Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said it began when what he said were 1 million people became "scared of something."

The police and rescuers had to fight their way through crowds, sometimes beating people with their belts to get through, according to reports from the scene.

The brightly lit suspension bridge with its delicate fretwork was carpeted with the shoes and bits of clothes of those who had been crushed or fled.

Other people carried bodies, both dead and badly injured, by their arms and legs; they knelt on the ground fanning those who were still alive or trying to perform CPR.

They loaded the dead and badly injured people onto flatbed trucks or the backs of motorcycles and packed them into ambulances.

Philip Heijmans, a 27-year-old photographer from Brooklyn, N.Y., who arrived at the scene half an hour after the stampede, counted about 40 bodies, with about 200 rescuers in the area. Some Australian firefighters were on the scene — it wasn't clear why they were in town — and were checking pulses before loading bodies into vans.

Calmette Hospital, the capital's main medical facility, was filled to capacity with bodies as well as patients, some of whom had to be treated in hallways. Relatives, some crying, searched for the missing Tuesday morning.

"I was taken by shock. I thought I would die on the spot. Those who were strong enough escaped, but women and children died," said Chea Srey Lak, a 27-year-old woman who was knocked over by the panicked crowd on the bridge.

Hun Sen ordered an investigation into the cause of the stampede and declared Thursday would be a national day of mourning. Government ministries were ordered to fly the flag at half-staff. He said the government would pay the families of each dead victim 5 million riel ($1,250) for funeral expenses and provide 1 million riel ($250) for each injured person.

Cambodia is one of the region's poorer countries and has an underdeveloped health system, with hospitals barely able to cope with daily medical demands. Hun Sen called on foreign investors and tourists not to shun the country because of the accident.

Koh Pich used to host a slum community, but in recent years the poor have been evicted to make way for high-rise and commercial development, most yet to be realized.