349 PEOPLE DIE IN STAMPEDE DURING A FEASTIVAL IN CAMBODIA

PHNOM PENN, Cmabodia - Thousands of people stampeded during a festival in the Cambodian capital, leaving at least 349 dead and hundreds injured in what the prime minister called the country's biggest tragedy since the 1970s reign of terror by the Khmer Rouge.

A panic-stricken crowd — celebrating the end of the rainy season on an island in a river — tried to flee over a bridge and many people were crushed underfoot or fell over its sides into the water.

• Disoriented victims struggled to find an escape hatch through the human mass, pushing their way in every direction. After the stampede, bodies were stacked upon bodies on the bridge as rescuers swarmed the area.
• The government television station said 349 people had been killed and 500 injured. Authorities said there were no foreigners among the dead or injured. The search for bodies in and along the Bassac River continued Tuesday.
• The prime minister's special adviser, Om Yentieng, denied some reports that the victims were electrocuted by lighting cables and that the panic was sparked by a mass food poisoning.
• Ambulances raced back and forth between the river and the hospitals for several hours after the stampede. 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. Relatives, some crying, searched for the missing Tuesday morning.
• "I was taken by shock. I thought I would die on the spot. Those who were strong enough escaped, but women and children died ," said Chea Srey Lak, a 27-year-old woman who was knocked over by the panicked crowd on the bridge.
• She managed to escape but described a woman, about 60 years old, lying next to her who was trampled to death by hundreds of fleeing feet.
• Hours after the chaos, the dead and injured were still being taken away from the scene, while searchers looked for bodies of anyone who might have drowned. Hundreds of shoes were left behind on and around the bridge. An Associated Press reporter saw one body floating in the river.
• Soft drink vendor So Cheata said the trouble began when about 10 people fell unconscious in the press of the crowd. She said that set off a panic, which then turned into a stampede, with many people caught underfoot.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith gave a similar account of the cause, adding that major causes of death were asphyxiation and internal bleeding. He denied some reports that authorities fired water cannons on the crowd. He said 62 women, mostly in their 20s, have so far been identified among the dead.
Robert Carmichael, a reporter in Phnom Penh, told CBS Radio News that he also heard that a fainting led to the stampede.

Source: CBS News