An elderly woman and her two granddaughters drowned in a small lake in Koh Kong province’s Boeung Preav commune yesterday while fishing.

Hang Khem, 60, took her granddaughters – Pov Sreylin, 13, and Khum Rina, 8 – to the lake yesterday morning, according to Nem Sovanny, the commune police chief.

By 12:30pm, they had not returned, prompting the family to raise the alarm, said Sreylin’s mother, Sorm Theara, 35.

The victims’ bodies were spotted by Sreylin’s 6-year-old sister, Sreynet.

“When I asked where the girls and their grandmother were, Sreynet told me they disappeared into the water.

My brother jumped into the lake to find them, but unfortunately they had drowned already,” Theara said.

Police arrived at the scene after being contacted by the family and retrieved the bodies.

After a brief examination the cause of death was established as drowning and the corpses were handed over to the family, Vanny said.

An estimated six children die every day in Cambodia from drowning, making it a leading cause of child mortality.