Stampede in Cambodia kills hundreds, government says

Cambodian military police examine bodies in Phnom Penh.

By the CNN Wire Staff

November 22, 2010

via CAAI

(CNN) -- A stampede that occurred during a festival near Cambodia's royal palace in Phnom Penh has killed 339 people, Cambodia's minister of information, Khieu Kanharith, said Monday.

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

The incident began around 10 p.m. (10 a.m. ET), when police began firing water cannon onto a bridge to an island in the center of a river, said Steve Finch, a journalist with the Phnom Penh Post.

The bridge was packed with people and police fired the water cannon in an effort to get them to move, he said.

"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, he said.

Officers with Prime Minister Hun Sen'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.

Hundreds of shoes, clothing and personal items littered 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, video on Bayon Television showed.

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

Video shot outside hospitals showed dozens of people 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.

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.