Tuesday, 18 January 2011

Cambodia bridge stampede disaster

via CAAI

17 january, 2011


19 year old Chea Channy is still coming to terms with her experience of one of Cambodia's worst ever disasters - a stampede on a crowded bridge which killed over 350 people, including her father.

The deadly incident happened two months ago, during Cambodia's annual Water Festival which attracts more than a million visitors to the capital Phnom Penh.

The stampede happened on a bridge leading to Koh Pich or Diamond Island - a new venue at the festival.

Channy was on the overcrowded bridge with her father and brother when panic broke out.

Hundreds of people, including Channy's father, died as a result of the stampede.

The country's Prime Minister Hun Sen described the disaster as the "biggest tragedy" to hit Cambodia since the mass killings carried out by the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s.

Channy spoke to the BBC's Guy De Launey in Cambodia and described how she came to be on the bridge that night.