At least 339 people been killed in a stampede during festival celebrations in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, Prime Minister Hun Sen has said.

Huge crowds had gathered on a small island for the final day of the Water Festival, one of the main events of the year in Cambodian. The stampede took place on a bridge, which eyewitnesses said had become overcrowded. Hundreds more people were injured in the crush.

An eyewitness told AP news agency the trouble began when 10 people fell unconscious in the crowd.

Panic occurred after a concert on Diamond Island, which followed a boat race on the Tonle Sap river regarded as a highlight of the festivities. “At least 50 people jumped in the river. People tried to climb on to the bridge, grabbing and pulling [electric] cables which came loose and electrical shock caused more deaths.”

“It was packed. People were pushing each other and I fell,” Khon Sros told the Reuters news agency from her hospital bed. “People were shouting ‘go, go’,” the 19-year-old added. She said 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.”

Sean Ngu, an Australian visiting family and friends in Cambodia, told the BBC too many people had been on the bridge. People at both ends were pushing, he said, causing those in the middle to fall to the ground – and then get crushed. The bridge became jammed up with people, some crushed under foot and others falling into the water. He said some of the victims were electrocuted.

Eyewitnesses speak of bodies littering the area. Many of the dead appeared to be teenagers

Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith told AFP news agency that more than 400 people had been injured.

“Most of the deaths were as a result of suffocation and internal injuries,” he said.

Authorities had estimated that more than two million people would attend the three-day festival, one of the main events of the year in Cambodia.

As day broke Tuesday on Diamond Island, sunglasses, flip-flops and brightly coloured clothes lay scattered on the bridge.

Revellers lingered in tears as the bruised bodies of youths in party clothes were carried away from the bridge, which was still decked with bright lights from the festival.

Calmette Hospital, Phnom Penh’s main medical facility, was filled with dead bodies as well as the injured, some of whom had to be treated in hallways.

Cambodia has declared Thursday a national day of mourning and Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered an investigation into the cause of the disaster.

Hun Sen described the stampede as the “biggest tragedy” to hit Cambodia since the mass killings carried out by the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s.

He ordered all government ministries to fly the national flag at half-mast.

BBC News

HT Editor