Police in Phnom Penh's Meanchey district arrested a 49-year-old man this morning after he allegedly doused his "second wife" with acid in front of her Stung Meanchey commune home on Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.

Deputy District Police Chief Hour Meng Vang said that Khieu Viseth, who is also married to another woman, was detained at 9am for throwing acid from a water bottle onto his second wife, Doeun Soknara, 47, yesterday afternoon as she was about leave home on her motorbike.

“Right now the suspect is arrested, and we accused him of committing the acid attack on his second wife and plan to send him to court tomorrow,” Meng Vang said. Viseth confessed to the attack, Vang added, noting that he targeted Soknara for refusing to come back to him after a separation.

He had been living with his first wife, Vang said.

Soknara sustained moderate burns to her face and arms, according to a nurse at Preah Kossamak Hospital who requested anonymity. She said the victim has since been transferred. The victim's daughter declined to comment on the case today.

This is the sixth acid attack reported by The Post this year, up from three in 2016 and four in 2015. In August, a Kampong Cham woman attacked her husband for having a second wife, and earlier that month a man was attacked with acid by his wife following alleged longstanding domestic abuse on his part. In other cases, a woman was attacked as part of a mugging attempt, a pregnant woman was attacked by the wife of her lover and a former lover of a groom-to-be threw acid on the engaged couple.