Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub Editor: Alex Cope, Agency: Asia Wire Report

These two teenage girls have died after the wooden boat they were travelling on capsized.

The drowned girls were identified as Srey Pich, 18 and Ton Dyna, 18, who were among a group of 12 people travelling aboard the vessel on the way to Sneha island on the Mekong River in Cambodia when it capsized dumping all of them in the water just 10 m from the bank.

Rescuers managed to save 10 of the people, but the two 18-year-olds vanished and it has taken a week to find their bodies, even though they were eventually located just 250 metres from the scene of the accident.

Men Sum, who is the spokesman for the local community, said the boat was only designed to carry four or five people, which meant there were 10 people more than that should have been aboard.

The rescuers were joined by members of the young women’s families who had also offered Buddhist prayers for the young women and had hired people to assist.

Local police chief Captain Vong Samel said the two women were celebrating Chinese New Year and were visiting relatives, and then wanted to make an extra trip to a friend who lived on Sneha island.

He added: “The boat was made of wood and had a motor and it sank because it was overburdened with too many people.”

The passengers who were rescued were not injured and have been released to their homes in the meantime.

The ViralTab page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.