Police in Banteay Meanchey’s Poipet town are searching for the perpetrator of an acid attack who the victim so far refuses to identify.

Thirty-year-old Tang Mouy Chou was doused with acid on Monday afternoon while she was eating noodles for lunch at a market.

Chou, who is currently recovering at Mongkol Borei hospital, suffered burns to 20 per cent of her body and was hit on her head and arm in the attack, according to the hospital’s director, Chanyuthy Thynavuth. Her condition is not critical.

Police do not know the exact motive behind the attack.

“We are trying to get more information from her, but we suspect it is because of a love triangle,” said Um Sophal, Poipet town police chief.

Sophal said three other perople received light injuries during the attack, but that they are fine now.

“Three people were burned a little by the acid because they were near the victim, so the acid spread to them,” Sophal said.

Thynavuth said Chou was the only victim sent to his hospital on Monday evening, and that she is not talking to anyone about her attacker.

Vy Vireak of Poipet commune police could not be reached for comment on the incident yesterday.

Erin Bourgois, project manager for the Cambodian Acid Survivor’s Charity, said on Monday that the attacks are commonly caused by a “breakdown in relationships” and that some victims do not identify their attackers out of fear of reprisal.

“Recovery can be a long process,” Bourgois said. “We have survivors who were attacked 10 years ago who we still see today.”

Three acid attacks were recorded in 2013, an 83 per cent reduction from the peak year of 2010.

The only other reported acid attack in Cambodia this year occurred in April, when a woman allegedly doused her husband with acid for threatening to divorce her.

ADDITONAL REPORTING BY CHARLES ROLLET