By DPA,
Phnom Penh: The Cambodian government appealed Wednesday for cash and material help for victims of this week’s bridge stampede that killed hundreds of revellers.
It described the stampede as “an unfortunate and regretful event”, and asked for donations “in the spirit of solidarity in order to help and share the victims’ difficulties.”
The appeal comes ahead of Thursday’s national day of mourning.
Both the government and the private developer of the Diamond Island complex, which built the bridge linking the island to the mainland, have denied responsibility for the lack of sufficient crowd control measures.
Earlier Wednesday, government spokesman Phay Siphan put the official death toll at 348, down from earlier figures, but acknowledged the final figure would likely be much higher.
“(The toll of 348 dead) is the official count of those bodies in the hospitals, but not those who (might have) died in private clinics,” he said. “And it also does not include those taken away by their families and not counted – we cannot control that.”
Phay Siphan said the final toll, which a committee would compile, would rise. He said by way of example that hospital records showed 65 Phnom Penh residents were killed, but local authorities in the capital were reporting 153 had died, a difference of 88 deaths.
The victims were among thousands of people trapped on a 100-metre-long bridge connecting an entertainment area on Diamond Island to the mainland of Phnom Penh on the final day of the Water Festival.
The government said most victims had suffocated or died from internal injuries when the crowd panicked.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Hun Sen said it was the worst death toll in such a short period since the Khmer Rouge regime was overthrown in 1979.
The stampede happened late Monday evening, the final day of the annual Water Festival, an event that authorities last week predicted would attract up to 4 million people to the capital.
An unknown number of people jumped off the bridge to avoid the crush, and Phay Siphan said some people were believed to be missing.
The government has set up a committee to establish what went wrong.