PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA - At the bridge where investigators poked though the debris of a disaster -- abandoned flip-flops and sneakers, water bottles, pieces of sugar cane -- Chea Chan lit a Buddhist memorial offering of incense, coconut and lotus flowers, and wept.
Chan, 28, had tried to grab his younger brother during the riverside stampede that killed at least 378 people Monday night, but he was pushed against the support poles of the narrow suspension bridge. His little brother fell down and immediately was crushed under four or five other falling people.
He found his dead sibling at a hospital with a broken neck and crushed face. "I'm totally in shock," he said.
The victims were trampled when a crowd celebrating a holiday panicked for reasons that remained unknown Tuesday. The prime minister's special adviser, Om Yentieng, denied reports that it was sparked by mass food poisoning or by people being electrocuted by lighting cables.
Don Saron, 26, said she was walking across the bridge when people began shouting that it was going to collapse. She tripped, and crowds trampled over her face and chest.
"People were just walking here and there and, all of sudden, people started to run," she said as she awaited treatment Tuesday at Calmette Hospital.
Police Chief Touch Naroth said investigators were still trying to determine the cause but suggested that the bridge's small size may have contributed to the tragedy. "This is a lesson for us," he said on state TV.
Prime Minister Hun Sen declared Thursday a day of national mourning.
