Ashes of Cambodia's revered ex-king Sihanouk lowered into river

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Cambodians lined the banks of the Mekong River on Tuesday as the ashes of their revered former King Norodom Sihanouk were lowered into the murky water a day after his cremation in Phnom Penh.

Several white sacks containing the ashes, including the pyre, were ferried on an ornate barge to the confluence of the Mekong, Tonle Sap and Tonle Bassac rivers in Phnom Penh, where members of the royal family lowered them into the water.

In a sombre televised ceremony earlier, mourners led by Sihanouk's widow Monique and his son - current King Norodom Sihamoni, picked out some of the ex-king's blackened bones from the crematorium to be kept in an urn at the royal palace.

The bones, which were washed in coconut juice and water from a sacred mountain, will be taken to the palace on Thursday when the week-long funeral ends, a palace official told AFP, requesting anonymity.