Over 300 killed in a stampede at Water Festival

Kong Sothanarith and Heng Reaksmey

Phnom Penh Monday, 22 November 2010

 

via CAAI

 

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS

An injured Cambodian is carried by police officers and another visitor after a stampede in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Monday, Nov. 22, 2010. Thousands of Cambodians celebrating a water festival by the river in the Cambodian capital stampeded Monday night, killing more than a dozen and leaving the area littered with hundreds of injured. The panic was exacerbated as the crowd rushed to cross a bridge, and some fell into the water. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

“They stepped on top of each other. Some jumped off the bridge and broke their legs and arms. The bridge exits were totally blocked. People could not move. If they didn’t jump, they would have been killed.”

Cambodian annual Water Festival ended Monday with over 300 revelers killed in a stampede, officials said.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said the incident took place after the festival goers got caught in a traffic jam on a newly-built bridge at Phnom Penh Koh Pich development area. Some later fell down of suffocation and died causing a general panic.

Ambulances and police cars raced back and forth between the river where the stampede took place and hospitals.

“Please call a doctor for me,” cried out a girl, kneeling at the scene. “There are four or five more missing. Please come to help over here.”

At Calmette, one of the hospitals, the wounded were carried out of the ambulances into emergency rooms, but due to limited capacity of the facility some were put at several places including walkway.

Some died on arrival at the hospitals.

“They stepped on top of each other,” a witnesses told VOA Khmer. “Some jumped off the bridge and broke their legs and arms. The bridge exits were totally blocked. People could not move. If they didn’t jump, they would have been killed.”

Old and young people alike lay dead on the bridge, witnesses said.

“Take a long and deep breath,” a doctor told the patients lying on the beds. “Don’t worry. There is nothing to worry now.”

“My legs are hurting,” cried out a girl nearby.

Tens of thousands people were attending the Water Festival when the stampede occurred.