Sisters deported for taking naked photos at Cambodia temple

Two American sisters have been deported from Cambodia after pulling down their trousers and posing for pictures in front of a temple in the Angkor complex.

Leslie Adams, 20, and Lindsey Adams, 22, were sentenced on Saturday after taking the nude photos of each other in Preah Khan Temple, officials said.

According to AFP, the tourists, from Arizona, were caught mooning the camera inside the World Heritage site.

In a statement, the Apsara Authority, the government agency managing the Angkor complex, said: "The two tourists admitted that they really made a mistake by taking nude photos."

Chau Sun Kerya, a spokeswoman for the agency, said the tourists' actions were offensive because Angkor is considered sacred ground.

"Perhaps they did not know Angkor is a holy site. But their inappropriate activities affect the sanctity of the place," she told AFP.

Keat Bunthan, a senior heritage police official in northwestern Siem Reap province, said: "They lowered their pants to their knees and took pictures of their buttocks."

It comes just days after three French tourists were deported from the country after taking naked pictures of each other at an Angkorian temple.

The tourists - Rodolphe Fourgeot, 19, Alexandre Vix, 19, and Vincent Bocquet, 20 - were convicted of producing pornography and for "exposure of sexual organs" by the Siem Reap Provincial Court, according to deputy prosecutor Sok Keo Bandith.

They were fined and given a six-month suspended sentence, as well as being immediately deported.

The trio have been banned from returning to Cambodia for the next four years.

Mr Bandith said: "We used the procedure of deportation in order to warn other foreigners."