24 Nov 2010

Cambodia declares national day of mourning

9:29 pm on 24 November 2010

Cambodia has declared a national day of mourning after nearly 380 people were killed in a stampede in the capital Phnom Penh.

Hundreds more were injured when people were crushed on a small island on the final day of a festival.

The stampede took place on the Diamond Gate Bridge, which had become overcrowded.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has ordered an investigation into the cause of the disaster.

He described the stampede as the biggest tragedy to hit Cambodia since the mass killings carried out by the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s.