Stampede in Cambodia yesterday killed at least 378 people
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Injured survivors lay on the floors of hospitals here Tuesday and the dead were loaded into coffins after one of the worst stampedes in recent years killed at least 378 people at a holiday celebration the previous night.
The cause of the stampede during Cambodia’s annual water festival was unclear, but most of the dead had suffocated or been trampled or crushed to death on a small bridge that became so tightly packed that survivors later said they had been unable to move or even to breathe.
The government denied reports that some of the casualties were electrocuted by loose wires or by lights on the bridge. Some survivors said the crowd panicked when people shouted that the slightly swaying bridge was about to collapse.
As the death toll rose, it appeared to surpass the worst recent stampede toll of 362 Muslim pilgrims who were crushed to death while performing a ritual at the entrance to a bridge near Mecca in Saudi Arabia in January 2006.
Prime Minister Hun Sen called it the worst tragedy in Cambodia since the mass killings that under place under the Khmer Rouge, who ruled the country from 1975 to 1979.