Boat capsizes in eastern Cambodia, killing Chinese man: police

A Chinese man died after a boat sank in Kampong Cham province of eastern Cambodia on Monday afternoon, an immigration police chief confirmed on Tuesday.

A native to Beijing, Zhang Wenhua, 51, a technician at Phan Tonghong Company, which grows tobacco and red corn, drowned when an engine-driven boat, carrying four Chinese and a Cambodian staff, capsized on their way to inspect a corn farm, Provincial Immigration Police chief Lim Moran said.

"High speed and strong flowing water current were blamed for the capsizing," he said in an official police report.

Early Monday, four Syrians also died of drowning when their car accidentally drove off a road and fell into an overflowing pond in eastern Prey Veng province, according to police.

Cambodia has been suffering from the Mekong River and flash floods. At least 30 people had drowned in less than three weeks, according to Keo Vy, chief of the Cabinet of the National Committee for Disaster Management.