About 30 workers at Kampong Speu province’s Sabrina Garment Manufacturing factory fainted yesterday after an electrical malfunction caused panic among the workers on the factory floor.

The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) in a statement said one of the overhead lights in the factory exploded, causing an alarm to go off. Panic set in as workers tried to leave the factory floor, the statement said, causing 28 of them to faint.

Ven Leng Hour, commander of the province’s military police, said workers assumed there was a fire in the factory when they heard the alarm, causing panic as they tried to exit.

“It was just the light exploding that made them afraid. They are now at hospital,” he said.

The NSSF statement said it was paying for the treatment of the workers, with Choek Borin, director of the provincial labour department, saying the workers were expected to return to work today.

According to an NSSF annual report, there were 1,160 workers who fainted while working on the factory floor last year, down from 1,806 incidents in 2015.