Seven Cambodians Die Searching for 75 Cents in a Well

Seven people died from oxygen deprivation after hunting for the equivalent of 75 cents. The seven individuals had lost 3,000 Cambodian riel (US 75 cents), which apparently fell down a well, according to the Associated Press.

On Saturday in a rural area of a Cambodian province called Eiem Reap, an eleven-year-old boy and six others hunted for their loose change. The eleven-year-old’s sister, Che Chhan, said their father dropped the change when using the well to retrieve water. Chhan said she also lost her thirteen-year-old sister and fifteen-year-old brother in the tragedy. Four of her neighbors who helped to try and retrieve the money also died in the incident.

“My youngest brother thought the amount of money was huge for poor people like us,” Che Chhan told the AP.

The well was only 16 feet deep; however, police confirmed that all of the victims had died as a result of a lack of oxygen at the bottom of the well.

The 2014 estimate for GDP per capita of Cambodia is $1,108.