Wednesday 24 November 2010
Reader's letter regarding the Koh Pich tragedyClick
Click on the handwritten letter in Khmer to zoom inCambodian stampede (Photos)
The coffins of Bun Ratha and his wife, Sim Ratanak, are pictured at a funeral in Kandal province. Ratha and Ratanak died at a stampede on the Diamond Gate bridge during the annual three-day Water Festival. (Chor Sokunthea/Reuters)
At least 378 people have died in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and the city is steeling itself for that number to rise. People celebrating the end of the rainy season got caught up in a stampede as they crossed a narrow bridge Monday. In panic, the crowd trampled on itself, and many fell over into the river below.
Buddhist monks take part in a religious ceremony to mourn the deaths of stampede victims. (Chor Sokunthea/Reuters)
Women cry as they prepare to carry home the body of their loved one from a makeshift morgue inside the Calmette hospital in Phnom Penh. (Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP)
People look at pictures of victims of the stampede posted on a billboard outside the Calmette hospital. (Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP)
Bodies of stampede victims are lined up at the Preah Kossamak Hospital. (Chor Sokunthea/Reuters)
Families of victims would receive 5 million riels ($US1, 230) in compensation: Hun Xen
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A soldier carries discarded sandals after a stampede that killed hundreds on the northen Koh Pich bridge late last night during the water festival. (Photo by: Rick Valenzuela) |
Tuesday, 23 November 2010
The Phnom Penh Post STAFF
Cambodian officials today were struggling to cope with the aftermath of last night’s tragic stampede on Koh Pich bridge in Phnom Penh that left more than 300 people dead and several hundreds more injured.
Prime Minister Hun Sen announced early this morning via video conference that 339 were confirmed dead.
Nhim Vanda, deputy director of the Department of Disaster Management put the figure today at 349, while unconfirmed reports from police officials said 375 had been killed.
The Prime Minister also pledged that the families of victims would receive 5 million riels ($US1, 230) in compensation.
City hospitals have begun posting photographs to help identify the dead, while government trucks have been tasked with returning identified victims to their home provinces.
A press conference has been scheduled for later this afternoon, during which officials are expected to announce details of their investigation into the cause of the stampede and ongoing efforts to care for survivors and the families of those who lost relatives in the stampede.
Festival stampede worst tragedy since Khmer Rouge K-5, says PM
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| A woman next to the body of a stampede victim at a Phnom Penh hospital (Reuters/Chor Sokunthea) |
Radio France Internationale
More than 330 festival-goers were killed in a stampede Monday on a bridge in Phnom Penh. The Prime Minister called it the country’s worst tragedy since the Khmer Rouge.
"This is the biggest tragedy since the Pol Pot regime," said Prime Minister Hun Sen in a live television broadcast early Tuesday morning.
Pol Pot was the leader of the Khmer Rouge regime that ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979, leaving up to a quarter of the population dead.
At least 339 people died in the stampede, and more than 300 were injured. The circumstances that triggered the stampede remain unclear.
Millions of people were in the streets for the third, and final, day of the Water Festival, which marks the reversal of the flow between the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers.
DAP-News updated: 375 dead and 755 injured
(Photo DAP-News)375 dead and 755 injured in stampede at Kok Pich. It seems that the incident stemmed from the CARELESSNESS and INCOMPETENCE of the authority who managed and controlled the festival. Here Hoon Xen´s auhthroty or policemen are good only at killing the democrats, workers, and evicting the poor people.
It is even worse while there´re not enough rooms for the injured to be treated at the hospitals. This makes us clear how weak and irresponsible this govt is under Hoon Xen because even it is now 30 years after the KR, Cambodia of Hoon Xen still cannot afford to have enough hospital rooms to accommodate these numbers of the injured.
Hoon XEn and Kep Chutema must STEP DOWN now!
Reader's letter regarding the Koh Pich tragedyClick
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| Click on the handwritten letter in Khmer to zoom in |
Condolences from KEA Inc.
CONDOLENCES
TO VICTIM’S FAMILIES
KHMER ENTERTAINMENT OF AMERICA, INC.
7863 Broadway, Lemon Grove, California 91945, United States of America (USA)
Tel: (619) 840-6651- Fax: (619) 583-5813 - email: cheanglp@cox.net
On behalf of the KHMER ENTERTAINMENT OF AMERICA, Inc. and families of all officers, I am saddened for the loss of hundreds of lives at Koh Pich Bridge, during the last day of Water Festival, in Phnom Penh.
We would like to extend our profound condolences and best wishes for quick recovery to the families and friends of those lost or injured in the unfortunate stampede in Koh Pich.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the victims and with all Khmers inside the country and abroad.
LIM CHEANG
President
Vietnam leaders convey condolences to Cambodia on disaster
11/24/2010
VOV News (Hanoi)
VOV News (Hanoi)
Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh and State President Nguyen Minh Triet on November 23 sent messages of condolence to Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni over the recent disaster in the country that killed hundreds of people.
The same day, PM Nguyen Tan Dung cabled a message of condolence to his counterpart HunSen and National Assembly chairman Nguyen Phu Trong extended sympathy to President of the Senate Chea Sim and President of National Assembly Heng Samrin.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem also sent condolences to Cambodian Deputy PM cum FM Hor Namhong.
$1,000 for each dead victim and $200 for injured victim: Pung Kheav Se
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| The head of Canadia Bank, Pung Kheav Se, speaks to protesters from the Rik Reay community outside the bank's Phnom Penh headquarters in April 2009. The community has refused to accept compensation for the loss of their city-centre land to a housing development project. (Photo by: HENG CHIVOAN) |
November 24 2010
Source: Xinhua
The victims of the major stampede, occurring Monday night on a bridge in Phnom Penh, got donations from the owner of the bridge on Tuesday.
"Nobody expected a tragedy like this would happen, and the control of pedestrian flow will be the main preventive measure we take in the future," said the president of Canadia Bank Pung Kheau Se, who is also the owner of Diamond Island and its bridge, as he came up at Calmette Hospital to show his condolences to the victims there.
The households of the dead each got 1,000 US dollars in cash while those injured in the accident got 200 US dollars each.
Pung said the rescue work taken by the government were timely and well-organized. He also showed his gratefulness to the charity groups and volunteers who came to the hospitals overwhelmed by hundreds of inpatients to help.
According to an anonymous personnel of the hospital, the largest one in the Cambodian capital, they had admitted more than 140 injured people and seen another 140 death cases since late Monday night after the stampede occurred on the bridge of Diamond Island in the last day of the Cambodian Water Festival.
The tragedy killed at least 375 people and wounded another 755 as the overcrowded bridge connecting main-land Phnom Penh to Diamond Island saw a sudden panic. Many were drowned, suffocated or were trampled to death as they tried to flee over the bridge.
The three-day Water Festival, the largest annual festival in the Southeast Asian nation, this year attracted over 3 million Cambodians, many from rural areas, converging to the capital city to enjoy the regatta.
Families to pay respects to Cambodia crush victims
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| Relatives mourn the loss of their younger brother among victims of the stampede placed inside a makeshift morgue inside the Calmette hospital in PhnomPenh on November 23, 2010. (AFP/Hoang Dinh Nam) |
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| Cambodian Buddhist monks gather to pray for victims of the stampede in front of the bridge in Phnom Penh on November 23, 2010. Grieving families in Cambodiawere due to pay their last respects Wednesday to relatives among the nearly 380 victims killed in a massive stampede at a water festival in the capital. (AFP/Tang Chhin Sothy) |
Kelly Macnamara
AFP
Grieving families in Cambodia were due to pay their last respects Wednesday to relatives among the nearly 380 victims killed in a massive stampede at a water festival in the capital.
The annual three-day celebration ended in tragedy on Monday, with survivors recalling scenes of fear and panic as crowds surged on an overcrowded bridge, crushing and trampling people underfoot.
Relatives were left with a harrowing search through hospitals and makeshift morgues in the capital Phnom Penh, desperate for news of the missing.
Many were faced with the heartbreak of identifying the bodies of their loved ones.
Hundreds of families are set to hold funerals for the victims in the coming days amid a national outpouring of grief.
Prime Minister Hun Sen described the disaster as Cambodia's worst tragedy since the Khmer Rouge's 1975-1979 reign of terror, which left up to a quarter of the population dead. He declared a national day of mourning on Thursday.
At least 378 people were killed in the stampede and some 750 were injured, government spokesman Phay Siphan told AFP, adding that the number could rise further.
Exuberant festival-goers had been crossing the bridge to reach an island hosting concerts, food stalls and ice sculptures before the crowd turned to a desperate crush of human bodies.
The dead, laid out in rows under a white tent erected in the city's Calmette Hospital car park, were photographed and numbered by policemen, their uncovered faces showing that many had sustained bloody bruises during the stampede.
One woman said she recognised her 16-year-old niece among the dead.
"I heard she was killed last night, so I came here and I saw her body," Som Khov, 51, told AFP.
After Hun Sen promised that the bodies of out-of-town visitors would be sent home, 13 military trucks began taking away corpses.
By late Tuesday most of the dead had been removed from the hospital's makeshift morgue, delivered back to their relatives.
It was not immediately clear what had triggered the disaster, but another government spokesman said a rumour had spread among revellers celebrating one of Cambodia's biggest festivals that the bridge was unstable.
Khieu Kanharith said many of the deaths were caused by suffocation and internal injuries, adding that about two-thirds of those killed were women.
One survivor at Calmette Hospital who suffered serious back injuries recalled the anguish of being unable to help others around him as the surging crowd became a suffocating crush.
"I felt selfish when it happened, but I could not help myself. There was a child trapped under me and I wanted to pull him up but I couldn't," he said, asking not to be named.
The stampede marked a tragic end to the boat races, concerts and fireworks that are traditionally part of the annual festival to celebrate the reversal of the flow between the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers.
The event -- which saw hundreds of brightly coloured boats take part in races on the Tonle Sap -- is popular with tourists but there was no confirmation that any foreigners were among the victims.
Condolences from the CPP of Rhode Island
We are the Cambodian People Party of Rhode Island (USA) would like to offer our warmest condolences to all the families and friends of the victimes who died or injured at Koh Pich on 11/22/10. We are very sorry and sad of the horrific incident that had happened and will mourn with you for the lost of your love ones.
Sincerely,
The CPP of Rhode I
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