- Three of the students are still missing and four others were rescued alive and taken to a hospital.

Satellite image of Kandal province, Cambodia. / Google Maps

At least eight children killed by the sinking of a ferry in Cambodia

At least eight schoolchildren died and three others are still missing after a ferry sank in the waters of Kandal province, the second most populous in Cambodia, local police reported Friday.

The incident occurred Thursday night. An unidentified boat, carrying about 15 children who had left school and were on their way home, sank while sailing between two towns in the Leuk Dek district in the southeast of the country.

The authorities confirmed to the Cambodian press that at least eight of the students, whose ages were not revealed, perished in the incident, while four others were rescued alive and have been transferred to a hospital in the region.

Three missing

With at least three other people remaining missing, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen urged police and rescue services to intensify searches for possible survivors this morning.

"I call on the police and relevant authorities to continue searching for the victims of this tragedy and I urge them to support the families of the victims at this difficult time," the president said on his Facebook account. , conveying his "deepest condolences" to the relatives of the students.

Police estimate that about 15 passengers were traveling on the ship, which sank in the town of Kampong Dor Toteung after leaving the village of Ampil Teuk for the remote village of Koh Chamroeun, where about 300 families live, according to local media reports.

Negligence and maximum passengers

The authorities are still investigating the causes of the accident, but they have advanced that the preliminary investigations point to possible "negligence" on the part of those responsible for the boat, which may have been aggravated by the increase in the water level due to the heavy rains that hit the region, the Phnom Penh Post reported.

In that sense, they pointed out that there are indications that the ship could have exceeded the maximum limit of passengers and that it did not have adequate flotation devices in case of an emergency.