Two young children drowned on Tuesday as they wandered off from a housewarming party being attended by their parents in O’Ambel commune in Banteay Meanchey province’s Sisophon town.

Commune deputy police chief Kong Phally said it appeared as though the children, who were cousins, had slipped and fell into a pond while walking home.

Phally identified the cousins as Chea Davry, a five-year-old girl from the commune’s Ko Rothan village, and Tram San, a six-year-old boy from Battambang province’s Ek Phnom district.

The boy came to the event with his family from Battambang.

While his parents were celebrating, he went out for a walk with Davry without their parents’ knowledge. When the ceremony was over at around 2pm, their parents could not find them and were told the cousins had walked to the pond.

While searching for them, they spotted the pair’s shoes and clothes before finding their bodies in the pond about 500m away from the house.

Phally said the 2m-deep pond belonged to a neighbour who had excavated the area in order to collect and sell silt.

“The victims may have slipped into the deep water and could not swim to the shore,” he said.

After an autopsy, police ruled out the possibility of murder.