A stampede on a bridge in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, has killed at least 339 people, with as many wounded the country’s prime minister told the nation on state public television. Reuters, which is carrying regular updates, reports that “thousands panicked late on Monday when several people were electrocuted while celebrating the end of an annual water festival.”
At least 15 people died when a stampede broke out at Germany’s love parade Saturday 24 July in Duisberg, Germany. Panic appears to have been the source of the stampede inside a tunnel filled with techno music fans. Reuters carries a video report:
Eight students have died and 26 are injured, the result of a stampede in a middle school stairwell in Hunan province, China. Authorities say that a student tripped and fell as students were rushing out of evening classes, causing others to fall. Seven boys and one girl, ages 11-14, died, apparently from head injuries or being smothered, based on students’ descriptions of the accident. The school’s 3,500 students were rushing back to their dorms and most used one stairwell to avoid rainy weather, according to Xinhua, although the school has four exits. The Chinese news service says the private school has a reputation as one of the best in the region of Xiangxiang, a city of 900,000, and most of the students are from well-off families in the area. The head of the school and chairman of its board, as well as the local education director, are being held by police while the accident is investigated. The school remained open Tuesday, but the stairwell, less than 1.5 metres wide according to Xinhua, was cordoned off by police.
Links to others sites: CNN, Xinhua
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Fifa, the Swiss-based international football federation, is fining Côte d’Ivoire CHF50,000 and enforcing several preventive measures before the next home match, at the end of a disciplinary investigation into a March 2009 accident that killed 22 people. Fifa has also donated CHF100,000 to the families of those who died.
The deaths occurred during a stampede outside the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Stadium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire before the Fifa World Cup/CAF Africa Cup of Nations qualifier between Côte d’Ivoire and Malawi 29 March 2009. The game went ahead, with the home team beating Malawi 5-0.
Eleven people died in Rabat, Morocco Saturday 23 May, the closing night of the eight-day Mawazine music festival in Morocco, but details about what caused the stampede are sketchy, although The Times, UK, reports that a wire fence collapsed, provoking the stampede. At least 30 people were injured. The festival was held in several locations and featured several well-known singers, including Stevie Wonder and Kylie Minogue. CNN, and Mawazine festival site, in French
Officials in the western Indian state of Rajasthan say that 113 people have died and at least 150 are injured, some very seriously, after a stampede set off by some people lost their footing in the crowd of 25,000 pilgrims observing the major Hindu feast of Navaratri, at the Mehrangarh Fort. AFP
