Deadliest Day in Phnom Penh as It Almost Reached 400

As the festival almost ended, an unexpected catastrophe happened which took almost 400 lives (Update: death toll hit 456 on 24th of November). The tragedy event took place on small bridge connected Phnom Penh to a small island known as Koh Pich.

According to the record on November 23rd of Council of Ministry, at least 379 people were dead and other 755 injured. This number is the largest one since the collapse of Khmer Rouge. To help those who were dead in the tragedy, government would share 5 million riel (about $1,200) and a coffin for each of them.

To solve the event, the government has set three committees, one to investigate the cause of the disaster, a second to supervise identification of victims and a third to conduct autopsies of the dead.

As the result of autopsies by Health Minister Mam Bunheng, the victims were dead because of stampede not electrocuting. But as the witness said, as the water was poured to those on the bridge cause the electrical shock.

To what we have learnt for the witness, it took the police and help aids almost 4 hours to get all the victims (379 dead and 755 injured) out of the small bridge. The police have done their best but there was absolutely no equipment such as oxygen to help the victims breathed, even the fire fighter can’t do a single thing. Some people even die after jumped from the bridge to the river and drown to death. There should at least some fire fighter or police there to help them.

At 3 pm on 23^rd of November, 500 monks and nums from pagodas in Phnom Penh marched from Wat Botum near the Royal Palace to the site of Monday’s tragedy, where they held a Buddhist ceremony known as Baing Sa’Koul to bless the souls of the dead.

To help the victims of the tragic, King Norodom Sihamoni, retired King Norodom Sihanouk, Queen-Mother Norodom Monineath Sihanouk has donated $200 to every dead family and $100 to every injured family. Humanitarian organizations Caritas, Oxfan International, World Vision Cambodia, CARE, and Save the Children pledged a total of $27,000 for the next five days food and water to the patients. Opposition SRP directly gave 20,000 riel (about $5) to each family and asked the government to explan in the National Assembly as soon as possible. Chinese Embassy was donated $10,000 to the government.

According to expert, the disaster could have been avoided or the death toll should not reach that high if we have more high equipments to help the victim in the site but the only thing that we could do is to pull them with our hands as hard as we can and let them unable to breath well. Moreover there should be a study of the investigation of the final report of Koh Pich before planning the next year’s festival.