Burr type III distribution is described and some of its properties are investigated. Some limiting and transformed distributions of this distribution are presented. Based on type II censored samples, the estimation of the parameters, survival and hazard rate functions are obtained by using the maximum likelihood method. Asymptotic variances and covariances of the maximum likelihood estimators are found. The estimated risks, squared biases and variances of the estimates are computed and compared for different sample sizes and number of samples through a simulation study.