Cambodian and Thai authorities are looking for seven men who allegedly kidnapped and attempted to traffic three children from Banteay Meanchey province across the Thai border.

A 12-year-old boy, his sister, 6, and their male cousin, also 6, were riding bicycles to school in Sisophon town’s O’Ambil commune on Tuesday morning when the men in masks pulled up alongside them in a minibus and forced them into it, said Prom Theng, the provincial military police’s chief of anti-human trafficking and juvenile protection.

The men drove the children to the Thai border and ordered them to walk their bicycles across the border, Theng said.

“Luckily, the Thai soldiers stopped the kids, who asked for help,” Theng said.

“The suspects escaped when they saw Thai soldiers helping the kids.”

Thai soldiers and Cambodian military police are both searching for the suspects, provincial military police chief Or Borin said.