Seven members of same family jump into river to escape bridge stampede

A 19-year-old ‘hero’ helps to save six other members of his family as they jump from the crush on the diamond bridge into the river below. Malin Dim coordinates his cousins escape from the stampede.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia. 27/11/2010.

Demotix

A 19-year-old ‘hero’ helps to save six other members of his family as they jump from the crush on the diamond bridge into the river below.

Malin Dim and six cousins set off on the 30 km, dusty and rutted road from their village – Pokrusey Kandal- in the Khsach Kandal district, Kandal Province of Cambodia to travel to Phnom Penh to celebrate the last 2 days of the water festival there.

On Monday evening the cousins, four boys and three girls namely: Malin Dim, 19, Nita Chhan 15, Chanta Sieng 16, Sihorn Heng 17, Namehhiv Yong 14, Hourlong Seng 16, and the youngest Sokhorn Houy who is just 13-years-old, held each others shoulders, with the youngest first they formed a line and pressed onto the crowded metal bridge linking the island to Phnom Penh. [The sequence of portrait images on the slideshow is in the same order as the above name call.]

“For the first few metres we were ok,” says Sihorn and then: “groups meet in the middle of the bridge and make a stampede. I was very afraid then.”