Phnom Penh: Three young friends have died in Phnom Penh after drinking contaminated rice wine. The girls died on Thursday after getting together to drink at a rented room close to Aeon Mall in Phnom Penh’s Tonle Bassac commune.

The three friends started drinking on Tuesday. When they started feeling unwell the following day, 18-year-old Phai left 17-year-old Ka and 18-year-old Thavy to go and fetch some medicine from her hometown across the river. Before she died, she managed to ask someone to check on her two friends. Their bodies were found on Thursday morning.

Tonle Bassac commune police chief, Sal Sandos, is reported as saying his officers were alerted to the incident around 11am. He says a bottle of traditional rice wine was found in the room. Poisoning is believed to be the cause of death.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, over 70 people have died in Cambodia since June as a result of poisoning from traditional rice and herbal wine. Police say, in some cases, home-distillers have been adding methanol to increase profits.

^{PHOTO BY: SARY}