Survivors had no food, water on sinking boat

CHINESE survivors from a boat that sank near a Cambodian island, killing three people and leaving eight missing, said they embarked on what they believed would be a short-term fishing job and ended up without food and water aboard the vessel and their belongings taken away.

Cambodian authorities said Friday they rescued 21 people a day after the boat small wooden fishing vessel sank near Koh Tang, a Cambodian island close to the maritime border with Vietnam.

Survivors told Cambodian officials they began their journey in southern China.

Dramatic video footage showed Cambodian crew on a nearby boat tossing life jackets and life-saving buoys toward the ramshackle vessel.

Two Cambodian crew members abandoned the boat when it first got into trouble and were rescued earlier.

Cambodian police described then as guides and put them under arrest.

It was not immediately clear why the passengers were being brought to Cambodia, though the account given by survivors suggests they were tricked by human traffickers who sometimes lure people with false offers of lucrative jobs. — AP