Cambodia opens new bridges yards from scene of 2010 disaster

Nov 7, 2011, 10:34 GMT

Phnom Penh - Buddhist monks offered blessings Monday as Phnom Penh opened two new pedestrian bridges near the site of a disaster that claimed hundreds of lives last year.

Dubbed the Twin Dragon Bridges, the wide concrete structures link mainland Phnom Penh to Diamond Island, a popular entertainment site. They were inaugurated by Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema.

The bridges stand just yards from another footbridge on which 351 people died and hundreds more were injured in a crush on the final evening of the annual Water Festival celebrations in 2010.

The November 22 disaster occurred after thousands of revellers tried to leave Diamond Island at the same time as thousands more attempted to access the island across the same bridge.

An estimated 8,000 people ended up trapped on the bridge, which is seven metres wide and 100 metres long. Most of the dead suffocated or succumbed to internal injuries.

The Twin Dragon Bridges have been built to ensure that pedestrian traffic flows onto the island along one bridge, and off the island on the other.

A government investigation conducted shortly after the disaster found that nobody was to blame for the deaths.

At the time Information Minister Khieu Kanharith described the crush as 'an unexpected accident' caused by inexperienced security personnel who had allowed crowds of people to cross the narrow bridge in both directions.

Around two million people streamed into the capital for the Water Festival last year to watch the boat races on the Tonle Sap river. The influx temporarily doubles the capital's population.

The government has cancelled the boat races this year after the worst flooding in a decade killed at least 250 people.