Three children drowned on Tuesday after a motorboat they were riding in with family members capsized in heavy rain on the Tonle Sap lake in Pursat province’s Bakan district.

The three siblings – two boys, ages 1 and 5, and their sister, 8 – were returning with their parents and two relatives from Siem Reap province, where the father had been blessed by a monk to avert misfortune foretold by a fortune-teller.

“Two boys drowned and were lost in the river, while the others scrambled to the floating boat,” Keo Lon, Me Keuk commune police chief, said.

“The mother held the daughter with one hand and the boat with the other. After a few hours, the daughter drowned.”

The adults clung to the boat for about seven hours before a passing boat rescued them. Twenty million riel (US$5,000) and a damleng of gold, valued at $2,000, were lost in the river.

Villagers are currently dredging for the boys’ bodies.

To contact the reporter on this story: Phak Seangly at [email protected]