If this had been a shooting it would be a “Mass Shooting”
Seven people are dead after a boy climbed into a well to retrieve a coin worth just 45 pence – and six others who tried to rescue him succumbed to oxygen starvation.
The 11-year old who slid into the well on a bamboo pole in a village in the Banteay Srei district was the first to lapse into unconsciousness and die – and today the tragic series of events that led to their deaths was revealed by police.
Acting district police chief Muy Nan told the Cambodia Daily that the tragedy began when 50-year-old father Tuy Chen accidentally dropped a 3,000 riel coin and his lighter into his well while drawing up water.
Desperate to find the coin because of his poverty, he used the bamboo pole to slide down but while he recovered his lighter he did not find the coin which was too valuable to lose.
‘The father was safe when he climbed back,’ said Mr Nan. ‘What no-one realised was that in the morning and night oxygen exists in the well, but there is none there in the evening when this occurred.’
The police officer said that unaware of the air changes in the well, Mr Chen’s 11-year-old son Che Aun descended down the pole in the early evening hoping to have better luck than his father in finding the coin.
When he failed to surface, his two sisters, Che Kea, 13, and Che Ratana,15, went in after him, setting off a chain of doomed rescue attempts.
Hay Chandy, 12, and his brother Hay Sangda, 20, went in after the sisters, followed by Chhem Sokhy, 15, and Teab Puon, 32, said the Cambodia Daily.
Only the final person to descend, Soy Peam, 27, survived – but even he was rushed unconscious to hospital..
Seven people dead going after a coin many of us would probably throw away. Since it’s asphyxiation in a well, and not “Gun Death”, this isn’t news!
H/T Bob
