Stampede in Cambodia kills hundreds, government says

[FourScore]

Stampede in Cambodia kills hundreds, government says
By the CNN Wire Staff
November 22, 2010 -- Updated 2047 GMT (0447 HKT)

(CNN) -- A stampede that occurred during a festival near Cambodia's royal palace in Phnom Penh has killed 339 people, Cambodia's minister of information, Khieu Kanharith, said Monday.

More than 4 million people were attending the Water Festival when the stampede occurred, said Visalsok Nou, a Cambodian Embassy official in Washington.

The incident began around 10 p.m. (10 a.m. ET), when police began firing water cannon onto a bridge to an island in the center of a river, said Steve Finch, a journalist with the Phnom Penh Post.

The bridge was packed with people and police fired the water cannon in an effort to get them to move, he said...

MORE AT: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/11/22/cambodia.festival.deaths/index.html?eref=edition

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Horrifying - if the story about the police firing the water cannon is true

then they have a lot to answer for. I can't see how that would ever do anything but make it worse.