Three young sisters drowned in Takeo province’s Samrong district on Monday evening, according to police, who blamed parental negligence.

Samrong district police chief Moeung Sarun said yesterday that three victims were Sorn Raksa, 11, Sorn Linda, 7, and Sorn Mary, 5.

“The three victims’ deaths were caused by carelessness on the part of the parents,” he said.

Nov Thear, 36, the girls’ father, said yesterday that his daughters had followed him to a rice paddy to weed and water the field. At about 5pm, while he was catching crabs and snails for dinner, his daughters had asked him to return home.

“After I caught enough crabs and snails, I just walked home. When I arrived, my wife asked me where the children were,” he said. “I said that they asked me to come home long before . . . Then I walked back to find them, and found their bodies floating in Kbal Sen Canal.”

Thear said the three girls were his only children, describing them as smart and industrious.

A November 2014 World Health Organisation report estimated the risk of drowning to be twice as high for Cambodian children as for kids of the same age in other low- to middle-income countries in the region.