SURIN: Five members of one family, three of them children, have drowned while collecting sand from the bed of the Mun River in Chumphon Buri district.

Their bodies were found in water five metres deep and recovered on Monday night.

After the five were reported missing about 8pm on Monday, police and rescue workers rushed to the bank of the Mun River at Ban Khok Klang in tambon Chumphon Buri, adjacent to tambon Tha Muang in Buri Ram’s Satuk district.

Police found a farm truck, sandals and clothing belonging to the missing on the riverbank. Rescue teams from Buri Ram and Surin provinces began a search, and about an hour later they found the bodies in the middle of the river.

The five were identified as Viriya Khadcha, 45; his daughter Nutcharin Khadcha, 23; and her three children – girls aged 14 and 11 years and a boy aged 8. 

Viriya's wife, Bang-orn Surit, 44, said her husband went with their daughter Nutcharin and their three grandchildren on Monday to collect sand from the riverbed for use in making concrete for their new house.

When by nightfall the five had not returned, she and other relatives went to look for them. They found only their farm truck, clothes and sandals on the riverbank. She called police.

Ms Bang-orn suspected her three grandchildren were swept away by the strong river current while playing, and that her husband and daughter drowned trying to save them. 

There were no witnesses to the tragedy.