Around 350 killed in Cambodian bridge disaster

The horrific task of identifying the bodies of around 350 people has begun in Cambodia. The victims were crushed to death in a panic on an overcrowded bridge in Phnom Penh and hundreds more were injured as millions celebrated the end of an annual three-day water festival.

Reuters

Prime Minister Hun Sen described the disaster as Cambodia’s darkest hour since the regime of Khmer Rouge, whose 1975-1979 reign of terror left up to a quarter of the Cambodian population dead.

"This is the biggest tragedy since the Pol Pot regime," Hun Sen said in a live television broadcast, referring to the Khmer Rouge's late leader.

He said Cambodia will hold a national day of mourning on Thursday.

Latest official figures show the stampede killed 347 people and left another 410 injured,
with many of the deaths caused by suffocation and internal injuries.

About two-thirds of the dead were women.

It was not immediately clear what had triggered the disaster, but it appeared a rumour may have spread among the revellers that the bridge was unstable, leading to the panic.

Several hundred worried relatives gathered outside the city's Calmette Hospital trying to identify missing loved ones. Rows of bodies were laid out under a white tent erected over the hospital car park, and people were straining to catch a glimpse of the dead.

Police were fingerprinting the victims, while all around people made frantic phone calls describing the outfits of the deceased.

Reuters

One woman said she recognised her 16-year-old niece in the makeshift morgue. "I heard she was killed last night, so I came here and I saw her body," 51-year-old Som Khov told the AFP news agency.

At the scene of the tragedy, sunglasses and flip-flops were left scattered on the ground among lifeless bodies. Police were seen carrying away some of the victims while others were laid in a row on the ground.

The event - which saw hundreds of brightly coloured boats take part in races on the Tonle Sap river - is popular with tourists, although there were no immediate reports that foreigners were among the victims.

Accidents are common during the races, which involve long, thin boats crewed by as many as 70 rowers, which compete against each other in the sometimes choppy waters in front of Phnom Penh's royal palace.