At least seven villagers in Siem Reap have died and dozens of others have become sick in the past week after eating fish caught in a local river.
Provincial officials say the fish were probably contaminated by eating poisoned fruit that had fallen into the water, something that has happened in past years but never with such deadly consequences.
Of the 69 people who reportedly became sick from eating the fish, at least nine are seriously ill and are being treated at a local hospital, said Ou Eam, Siem Reap’s penal police chief.
The villagers in Srei Snom district became sick after eating fish caught in the Ou Cheak river, 40 km downstream from Anlong Veng district, Ou Eam said.
Police confirmed the fish were the cause of death by catching several, roasting them and feeding them to chickens, Ou Eam said. Within an hour the chickens were dead.
Villagers told police that some people became seriously ill and died within minutes of eating the fish. Ou Eam said samples of the fish will be sent to Phnom Penh this week to be analyzed.
Shortly after the deaths were reported, rumors circulated that the fish had been contaminated by toxins sprayed near area lakes and waterways by Khmer Rouge troops, led by Ta Mok, in the early 1990s as they tried to stall the advance of government troops by poisoning them.
As the area has flooded during the rainy season, Ou Eam told Reuters news service on Saturday, the places sprayed by the Khmer Rouge have become inundated in water, and any poison present could have seeped into the river, where it eventually could have been consumed by the fish.
But on Sunday both Ou Eam and Chea Morn, commander of Military Region 4, said local officials no longer believe poison used by the Khmer Rouge contaminated the fish.
“The people perished and got sick because they ate fish that had eaten poisonous fruit,” Chea Morn said.
