Hanoi  - Police in central Vietnam have arrested three men for killing five rare langurs, a forest warden said Wednesday.

The men were arrested Monday in the Hon Ba Nature Reservation in the central province of Khanh Hoa. Forest wardens said they found the men, armed with hunting guns, carrying five dead black-shanked Douc langurs out of the forest.

Phan Huy Thang, head of Khanh Hoa province's Forest Warden Department, said the men had been turned over to district police for prosecution.

The langurs belonged to a population separate from that on the nearby Hon Heo Peninsula, where over 100 black-shanked Douc langurs are known to live.

On February 28, two poachers were charged with killing two black-shanked Douc langurs in Hon Heo Penisula.

Sylvio Lamarche, a resort owner and conservation advocate on the Hon Heo Peninsula, said the arrests showed Vietnamese authorities were taking poaching more seriously.

"There seems to be some progress," Lamarche said. "There had been some killings before, and nothing ever happened. Now with these guys there's a big emphasis on how long a jail term they're looking at."

If convicted, both sets of poachers face between two and seven years in prison. (dpa)