[video=youtube;Gjn97sqPRsQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gjn97sqPRsQ"[/video] At least 375 people have been killed in a stampede during a concert in the capital of Cambodia. Huge crowds had gathered on a small island for the final day of the Water Festival, one of the country's largest public events. Most of the victims were crushed, while others drowned trying to flee an overcrowded bridge. The Cambodian Prime Minister called it the nation's biggest tragedy since the Khmer Rouge mass killings of the 1970s.
Wow that's crazy. Best wishes to all the families who have lost their loved ones. A terrible tragedy.
Gosh 2:22 so many dead people. They should be helping rather than recording!!! But for obvious reasons, they wanna share it...
Bottom line, it is always up to authorities to keep order and maintain a safe venue. These tragedies don't just happen in third world countries; even first world, and disaster "prepared" places like New York City, aren't immune. Spoiler: From a NY Times 1991 article... STAMPEDE AT CITY COLLEGE; Inquiries Begin Over City College Deaths By ROBERT D. McFADDEN Published: December 30, 1991 Stunned elected leaders and police, medical and City University officials began sweeping inquiries yesterday to try to explain a nightmarish stampede that left eight young people trampled or crushed to death and 29 others injured at the doorway of a City College gymnasium Saturday night at a charity basketball game featuring celebrity rap stars. On a Sunday of winter gloom that seemed to reflect the mood of those who mourned, New Yorkers and their political and educational leaders tried to absorb the fearful images of a mob of pushing, shoving rap fans; of victims trapped in a small stairwell, screaming, passing out, being crushed while others sought autographs amid the carnage or laughed in their ignorance. The stampede -- its cause still obscure -- occurred about 7 P.M. at Jeremiah T. Mahoney Hall on the City College campus at 138th Street and Convent Avenue. Witnesses said a crowd of thousands funneling into an already crowded gymnasium surged forward, pressing those ahead. Like a deadly human wave, the pressure moved through the crowd, down a stairway and into a well before a single door that was open for ticketholders. There, out of sight of the mass of humanity above, the victims were buried, crushed and smothered to death. Slew of Questions Yesterday, on a day of sorrow and questions, messages of condolence were sent to the families of the victims, investigators interviewed witnesses and re-examined the scene of the tragedy, Mayor David N. Dinkins appointed a task force of top officials to investigate it, and City University officials began a separate investigation. From City Hall to City University headquarters, the authorities met to discuss what was widely regarded as a needless calamity, one of the worst in years here -- though it had happened before in other cities -- and to search for answers to hard questions: How did it happen? Was there insufficient security? Insufficient planning? What went wrong? And who, if anyone, was to blame? "We have some of the same questions you have," Mayor Dinkins said at a crowded City Hall news conference after meeting with a task force that included police, fire, medical and university officials and was being headed by Milton Mollen, the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety. Mr. Dinkins said he understood the game was "oversold," but he declined to assess blame. Under a barrage of questions, he said: "We will continue to get responses to those questions. We hope you will understand the inability to exhaust every single question at this time. We have a real tragedy and we're very much concerned about it. We're going to find out why it happened, how it happened, who's responsible, if someone was derelict." While definitive answers appeared to be days or even weeks away, many of the facts surrounding the tragedy began to come into focus yesterday. Officials said, for example, that as many as 5,000 fans tried to get into an an event that could handle no more than 2,700; that gate-crashers may have sparked the stampede; that 66 police officers were there, but none were inside at the crucial moment when they might have controlled the deadly crush, and that private security guards in the gym, even after recognizing there was a tragedy in the making, could not open more doors to relieve the pressure because the doors opened toward the crush. Officials also disclosed the existence of an amateur video tape showing large open spaces around the gym floor at a time when people were dying at the door. They also noted that the tragedy was so isolated in the stairwell that the basketball game was being played inside and confusion reigned on the landing above and that hardly anyone knew it was happening until it was all over. Officials and witnesses also said that Emergency Medical Service workers did not arrive until a half-hour after the stampede and then were mobbed trying to reach the victims. Lynn Schulman, an E.M.S. spokeswoman, said the first call, at 7:17 P.M., did not suggest the seriousness of what was happening, and it was not until 7:30 P.M. that it became a high priority. She denied reports that paramedics refused to give cardio-pulmonary or mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Witnesses, meantime, told of a crowd of teen-agers and young people that degenerated into a mob of rowdy, tough-talking youths who cut lines and vowed to rush the doors when they opened, who arrived without tickets and pushed and shoved to get in, who diabolically kept the pressure up even after fights erupted and the screaming and panic began. They told, too, of police officers and private security guards who did little or nothing to help, of one door open at the gym entrance where the crush was greatest, of anger flaring inside when the game was canceled because of multiple deaths at the door, and of fans rushing about in a maelstrom of chaos, stepping over the fallen, some laughing or badgering celebrities for autographs even as others were being stomped and dying. After a meeting with other City University administrators and security officials, Dr. W. Ann Reynolds, Chancellor of the City University of New York, and Dr. Bernard W. Harleston, president of City College, held a news conference and issued a statement expressing sorrow over the deaths and other casualties, offering condolences to the victims' families and announcing a separate university investigation. Dr. Reynolds and Dr. Harleston declined to assess blame or to say what went wrong, noting that those evaluations should await the completion of their inquiry. But they provided many new details on the event that led to the trouble and the security arrangements surrounding it. Sell-Out Was Expected The request to hold what was billed as the first annual Heavy D and Puff Daddy Celebrity Charity Basketball Game at Nat Holman Gymnasium in Jeremiah T. Mahoney Hall was made to City College officials on Dec. 1 by Cassandra Kirnon, president of the Evening Student Government, Dr. Reynolds said. Other officials said a rap promoter identified as "Tara Geter for Sean Combs" was involved, and fliers listed KISS-FM -- radio station WRKS -- as a sponsor. The application did not specify the size of the anticipated audience, but school officials expected a sell-out crowd for a gym holding 2,700 in its bleachers. About 1,500 tickets had been sold by last Friday for $12 each; the other 1,200 were to be sold at the door for $20. Handbills said profits were to be donated to the AIDS Education Outreach Program. Police and City University officials noted that there had been a similar event at City College on Dec. 20 that had attracted 500 to 700 fans and had been held without incident. They said they had expected a sellout for Saturday, but not the thousands of additional fans who showed up. There have been tragic incidents at rock and rap events before -- 11 people killed in Cincinnati at a 1979 concert by The Who; two killed in Nashville in 1987 at a Public Enemy concert; two killed in Leicester, England, in 1988 at a heavy metal festival, and three killed in Salt Lake City last Jan. 18 at an AC-DC concert. Lure of Celebrities And while the City College event was to be a basketball game, the spectators were hardly sports fans, witnesses said. They were primarily interested in the celebrity rap stars, who included some of the biggest names in the business -- Heavy D, Michael Bivins of Bell Biv DeVoe, Boys 2 Men, Run-DMC, Jodeci, Ed Lover and Big Daddy Kane. Dr. Reynolds said the director of campus security for City College, Charles Delaney, had asked for police aid at the gym. The Police Department's Chief of Patrol, Mario A. Selvaggi, said the police initially assigned 10 officers and a sergeant, but later, when the school said a sell-out was expected, added 20 more officers and two more sergeants. Police officials said officers did not enter campus buildings unless summoned or unless there was a danger to public safety. Inside the gym, Dr. Reynolds said, were 38 campus guards hired from the Pinkerton agency and 20 guards from the Nation of Islam who had been hired by sponsors of the event. The crowd began to gather outside the gym on Convent Avenue about 3 P.M. By 5, when the first police arrived, it had swelled to thousands. The police quickly called for reinforcements and eventually, Chief Selvaggi said, 59 officers, four sergeants and three captains were at the gym. The doors opened shortly after 5 P.M. Two lines were formed, one for ticketholders and another for those who would buy tickets inside. But witnesses said hundreds without tickets began to cut into the lines, pushing and shoving, growing rowdier. "People were cutting line," said Chemene Pelzer, an 18-year-old college student from Binghamton, who had heard about the game on the radio and decided with a group of friends to attend. "Some were standing in the street trying to form their own line. They were going to try to rush the door as soon as it opened. People were just pushing in all over the place." Boisterous Crowd For more than an hour, as tensions mounted and occasional fights broke out, each line funneled through a separate entrance of double doors at the street level, then moved through a glass-walled lobby and down a 12-foot wide staircase to the basement entrance to the gym. On the basement landing was a row of four orange metal doors. Each could open only toward the incoming crowd, but just one door was kept open, allowing first the ticketholders and then those buying tickets to go through singly or in small groups. The line moved with agonizing slowness as one person took tickets and another frisked people, contrary to City College rules. The game was to start at 6 P.M., but as 7 o'clock approached, it had still not begun, the stands were almost filled, the lines had almost stopped moving, and witnesses said there were 2,000 people still outside, waiting to get in. The game finally began. People 'Going Crazy' What touched off the stampede was still unclear yesterday. But some witnesses said that rowdy fans without tickets, who had bragged to others that they were going to get in, suddenly rushed the entrance, pushing those ahead of them. Hysteria seemed to spread everywhere in the crowd. "People were just going crazy," said Sharmayne Jones, 20, of the Bronx. "They shoved and shoved and shoved. They were on top of me, and I couldn't breathe." The pressure moved like a wave through the crowd. It shattered one of the glass doors and rippled through the mass of hot, sweating people in the lobby and down the jam-packed stairwell, where the crush was greatest. People down below fainted and fell. Some were trampled, others were buried under the crush. Randy Jones, 30, of the Bronx, said he was standing just inside the single open door to the gym when the invasion began. He said a woman collecting money at the door got up, took a can holding receipts and closed the door behind her as she ran into the gym, leaving the crowd to pile up in the stairwell. Outside, the crush grew greater. Chief Selvaggi said the crowd in the stairwell built rapidly and began to bunch up against the closed doors, which could then not be opened. Other witnesses said victims began to pile up at the bottom of the stairway, having collapsed or fainted. "There were three people under me and two on top," said Keenan Gray, 20, of Queens. "I was stuck for 20 minutes." "A girl was sitting up on my chest," said Lynette Delane, 18, of Paterson, N.J. "She wasn't even conscious. I just thank God I'm still alive. No one even cared. They wouldn't stop pushing." The police upstairs were unaware of what had happened in the stairway, Chief Selvaggi said, until someone told them that people inside had been injured and killed. Then, he said, the police moved in to evacuate the stairs and assist E.M.S. workers trying to reach the victims. As the crush eased, the gym door was opened again and Mr. Jones saw a mass of people "packed in like sardines." Just inside the door, witnesses said, people sprawled on the floor, collapsed or passed out. Others cradled them and tried to revive them with ice cubes. Many in the bleachers were watching the game, oblivious to events at the door. Then, an announcement on the public addresss system said the game was canceled because three people had died. Sharmayne Jones said it had an edge of blame -- "Three people are dead because you didn't listen" -- and instead of calming the situation, it seemed to make matters worse. Lori Grant of Brooklyn said those in the gym began trying to get out, worsening the crush at the door. Darrell Frederick, sitting high in the bleachers, saw "a stampede," and added: "People started running. People were pushing down other people. People on the bottom were getting trampled. People jumped off the bleachers and crushed them." Andrea Rudder, 18, of Farmingdale, L.I., knew cardio-pulmonary techniques and was in the gym. "I saw about 10 people laying on the floor and people trying to work on them. There was one I don't know if he was dead or not, but I helped the people work on him." Another man, she said, had a severe head injury. "It was like he'd been trampled on," she said. "I think he was already dead." While some tried to help the stricken, others were trying to get their money back. "It don't make no sense," said Ms. Jones. "These people were asking for their money back and there were six people dead." Some witnesses said the rap stars pitched in to help the victims, while some of the disappointed fans interrupted them from time to time, seeking their autographs. Yesterday, remnants of tragedy littered the gym floor: latex gloves used by paramedics, ambulance sheets, oxygen masks, intravenous tubes and hypodermic syringes. And there were reminders of the crowd's mad rush -- a pair of broken glasses, a black hairpiece, a white sneaker. At St. Luke's Hospital, a battered young woman lay in a coma, critically injured. And the eight dead -- three women and five men -- lay in a morgue. Dr. Charles S. Hirsch, the Chief Medical Examiner, said autopsies had found they had all been crushed. "The cause of death in each case was identical," he said. "They died as a result of having their chests compressed, and therefore were asphyxiated." Source: http://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/30/n...inquiries-begin-over-city-college-deaths.html In the New York event, there were many contributing factors, but the main cause mostly had to do with a lack of crowd control at all times by authorities. There is often a mistaken perception by event holders that a single person at a gate, taking tickets, would serve as adequate crowd control. That is a deadly assumption, as even armed police do not have the power to resist a surging crowd. The only thing that stops such movements of masses people are actual physical barriers. But such barriers have to be designed to allow people to get out if they had to, and not be crush against an immovable object. I'm sure that many of the mistakes made in New York (and as Knoct mentioned, recently in Germany) were probably evident as well at this event in Cambodia. Regardless of where it happens though, these things are sad to see.
Hope no gets stampede because of black friday. Reminds of the dude that died 2 years ago. He opened the doors at walmart died after being trampled in Black Friday stampede.
