November 23 2010
By Tim Johnston and Elaine Moore in Phnom Penh
Financial Times
A picture of Peng Seriwattana, 15, a schoolboy with unruly hair and a direct stare, sat on a table. He had promised to be home by 8.30pm on Monday, but by Tuesday afternoon his body was laid out under a sheet in a temple, his young cousin burning squares of gold paper on an altar in the hope he would have a prosperous afterlife.
Peng Seriwattana was one of at least 378 people killed and more than 755 injured in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, on Monday night when thousands of people leaving an island water festival stampeded on a narrow bridge.
Some survivors spoke of trampling bodies and others of throwing themselves into the shallow water of the Bassac river to escape the crush.
“Many people were trying to move but they couldn’t. There was no air and I felt myself standing on other people,” said Cho Vannath, 21, a student teacher, who described screaming and the whistles of stewards as they tried to channel the revellers.
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