Four girls drowned after playing in a pond in Banteay Meanchey’s Phnom Srok district, police said on Sunday.

District police chief Yort Sophal said the girls, aged between four and 10, drowned in Phnom Dei commune at around 5pm on Saturday.

Phnom Srok district deputy police chief Uon Kandam said one of the sisters was curious as to the depth of the pond and walked into it. Unable to swim, she started to struggle. The other girls jumped in in an attempt to rescue her but also got into trouble. All four drowned.

“They were dead when the villagers recovered the bodies,” Kandam told The Post on Sunday.