District and provincial police in Ratanakkiri are searching for a band of muggers who allegedly robbed a pair of jewellers at gunpoint of more than $46,000 worth of gold and platinum.

After packing their gold and platinum into a jewellery box, the married couple, Sart Vanda, 35, and Keo Sinat, 28, were heading on their motorbike from Bakeo district market, where they sell jewellery for a living, to their home in Laminh commune’s Village 1 at 4:15pm on Tuesday when a man stepped onto the road. He pointed a gun at them and ordered them off the bike, Min Ren, Bakeo district police chief, said.

When they got off the bike, on which they carried a box containing about 30 grams of gold and a kilogram of platinum, another man jumped on it and drove away, Ren said. The armed man then jumped onto a second motorbike that pulled up and sped off.

Many people witnessed the robbery, which occurred about 10 metres from Vanda and Sinat’s jewellery shop, Ren said. Police found the empty jewellery box in a cashew plantation close to the scene of robbery.