According to officials, a boat carrying nine pupils crossed a river in southern Cambodia and sank, killing all of them.
Two students were remained missing on Friday, according to authorities, while two crew members were among the four persons who were recovered after the accident on the Mekong River southeast of Phnom Penh on Thursday night (local time).
The boat was overloaded and was missing life jackets, according to Chhoeun Sochet, head of the Kandal Provincial Police, who posted on his Facebook page.
The students, who ranged in age from 12 to 14, resided on an island in the river and commuted to their village’s main street by ferry nearly every day during the rainy season.
The river can be crossed on foot when there is little to no water in it during the dry season. The students were on their way to an English class on Thursday (local time) when the boat capsized.
The disaster happened close to the Neak Loeung bridge that spans the Mekong, dividing Kandal province on the western bank from Prey Veng on the eastern shore at the time.
The bridge is a component of Route 1, a significant thoroughfare that links the nation’s capital, Phnom Penh, to Ho Chi Minh City in neighbouring Vietnam.
Am Thou, the police chief in Kandal’s Leuk Daek district, claimed that the mishap happened as the boat was drawing near to the shore.
The pupils were told to shift to seats in the middle or stern of the boat as it began to take on water in the bow.
The boat, however, lost balance as they were making their way back and capsized.
One of the survivors, Ry Chanbora, 12, was seen in a video posted online by Swift News telling relatives that despite living next to a river, she often isn’t a good swimmer.
She claimed that when the boat began to sink, she leaped from it, tried to swim with her face up, and floated to the side of the river.
Provincial representatives paid the child a visit, while King Norodom Sihamoni posted prayers and condolences for the victims’ families on his royal Facebook page.
The boat’s owners, who were also its crew, were taken to the hospital following the tragedy, but the police chief Am Thou said they would still be sued. They would be charged with what, he did not specify.
The Asia-Pacific area accounted for 61% of all drowning deaths worldwide in 2019, according to estimates from the World Health Organization from the previous year.
According to the UN organisation, more than 33% of the 70,000 drowning deaths that occurred in the WHO South-East Asia Region in 2019 involved children under the age of 15. “On average, men were three to four times more likely to drown than women. ”.
In Cambodia, a river ferry capsizes, leaving 9 students dead.
About Author
