Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Cambodia remembers stampede victims one year on

Nov 22, 2011
AFP

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Hundreds of tearful relatives burned incense and placed offerings of flowers, fruit and food on Tuesday at the foot of a new memorial honouring 353 people who died in a bridge stampede one year ago.

'I feel fearful seeing this bridge,' an emotional Tith Sam Ath, 40, whose 12-year-old son died in the disaster during a popular festival in the capital Phnom Penh, told AFP.

'I still miss my son every day. He was an outstanding student,' she said, as Buddhist monks chanted and blessed the memorial, which carries the names of those who perished nearby.

Cambodia's annual water festival ended in tragedy last year when crowds panicked on the narrow crossing leading to the capital's Diamond Island, one of the main event sites.

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