| Monday night, the last day of the Water Festival, many people had returned to their homes in Phnom Penh or even started journeys back to the provinces. Many young people, however, attracted by live music, crossed over to Koh Pich (Diamond Island) after dark. No one is sure at this point what happened, but there was panic in the crowd on one of the two bridges leading to the little island and a stampede resulted. Close to 350 people were killed and many injured. |
|
 |
The medical facilities of Phnom Penh, basically inadequate for even normal health needs, were overwhelmed by the scale of this tragedy. This is the back wall of the Russian Hospital with gawkers looking over the wall at families trying to locate and identify the bodies of their loved ones. |
 |
This tent is a temporary morgue where families came the morning after to try to locate missing sons and daughters and identify bodies. 170 bodies were brought to this Russian Hospital alone. In the nighttime chaos they were first just laid side-by-side on the ground in the hospital parking lot. |
 |
Koh Pich is a new development. The squatters who had been there were forcibly evicted two years ago by developers friendly to the government and a variety of buildings are planned. Presently there are exhibition halls and wedding reception rooms along with a few food shops and an area for live music and other shows. It is a very small island connected by two bridges to the riverfront. |
 |
At one of the major wats (pagodas) near the river, both the Cambodian national flag and the Buddhist flag were flying at half mast the morning after the tragedy. |
 |
Throughout the city everyone was talking about the events of last night. Motorcycle taxi drivers were talking to each other at stop lights, neighbors spoke on the street at home, and these young people gathered near the waterfront. |
 |
Tonight there was a spontaneous outpouring of offerings for the spirits of those who died in the stampede last night. As I was bicycling home in the dark, house after house in each block had all sorts of offerings of candles, fruit, incense, water, etc., to comfort the spirits of those who died violently. |