Cambodia: Hundreds dead after festival crowd panic

MORE than 300 people were killed and hundreds more injured after thousands of people stampeded during a festival in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh last night. The prime minister called it the country's biggest tragedy since the 1970s reign of terror by the Khmer Rouge.

Crowds celebrating the end of the rainy season on a sliver of land in the Tonle Sap river became panicked when a handful of people fainted in the press of bodies. Hundreds tried to flee over a bridge and were crushed underfoot or fell over its sides into the water.

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. Many of the injured appeared to be badly hurt, raising the prospect that the death toll could rise.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said that 339 people had been killed and 329 injured. He described the chaos as the biggest tragedy to strike his country since the communist rule of the Khmer Rouge, whose radical policies are blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million people during the 1970s.

He ordered an investigation into the cause of the stampede and declared that Thursday would be a national day of mourning.

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

The last race ended early yesterday 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 was being held. It was packed with people.

Seeking to escape the island, part of the crowd pushed on to a bridge, which also jammed up, with people falling under others and into the water.