About 80 garment workers at a factory in Kandal province’s Ang Snuol district fainted yesterday after seeing a co-worker collapse.

Workers at the Grand East Footwear factory said that they saw Hor Seng Houng sprint away from the factory floor after she had experienced difficulty breathing and then proceeded to faint, which prompted the other workers to follow suit.

“When the workers saw the person [Houng] faint in front of them, they didn’t know why, but they felt exhausted and fainted themselves,” said Seang Rithy, the director of the Cambodian Youth Power Union League (CYPUL).

Rithy said most of the workers were sent to the Ang Snuol health centre, but the cause of the mass fainting remained unknown as of press time.

Houng was sent the Preah Kossamak Hospital in Phnom Penh. She was in serious condition.

The National Social Security Fund said that it cooperated with the factory to send the workers to the health centre and that the fund would pay for their medical costs.