Police in Kandal province have enlisted the help of 10 fishermen in their search for the body of a 2-year-old girl who has been missing since a ferry capsized in a squall on the Mekong River on Wednesday.
The toddler was last seen in the ferry’s pilothouse and is presumed dead, but the fishermen on Friday scoured the river in Lvea Em district for her body, according to district police chief Chea Thol.
The ferry overturned in a storm that swept across southern Cambodia early Tuesday afternoon while carrying about 10 people.
The body of a 61-year-old passenger who drowned in the river was recovered the same day. “Only the 2-year-old girl is missing,” Mr. Thol said, adding that the boat’s pilot swam to shore and ran away.
On Friday, the ferry’s owner hired local boatmen to drag the upside-down—but still floating —vessel toward the riverbank but made little progress, the police chief said, declining to name the owner.
Provincial police chief Iv Chamroeun said the accident was nobody’s fault. “Recently, we’ve seen a tree fall on a car and a house collapse in a storm. How could we blame someone for that?”
