Two young girls drowned in a canal in Banteay Meanchey province’s Mongkol Borei district on Friday afternoon after visiting their parents in a nearby rice field, officials said yesterday. Deputy provincial police chief Chan Kosal said that Kunthea Routh, 11, and her 6-year-old sister, Kunthea Neang, drowned when they stopped to play in a canal near their house in Phnom Prasath village. Witnesses said Kunthea Routh attempted to help when she saw her sister struggling, but neither could swim.