Stampede death toll rises to 375

CAMBODIA searched for answers yesterday, a day after a stampede killed at least 375 people on a suspension bridge where survivors said they were wedged into the crowd of living and dead for hours.

The government launched an investigation into why thousands panicked on the pedestrian bridge connecting Phnom Penh to an island where mostly young people celebrated the last day of a festival marking the end of the rainy season. Survivors recounted scenes of mass suffocation and desperate screams after thousands went into a frenzy to flee the bridge, apparently after shouts went up that some people had been electrocuted.

Police said some also shouted that the bridge was about to collapse.