Police said yesterday that they believed the gruesome murder of two young female students was premeditated and happened on site.

Deputy Phnom Penh police chief Choun Narin said officers were continuing to investigate. On Wednesday, a passerby discovered the decomposing bodies of Vorn Leakhana and Choub Sreyleak — bound together by electrical wire — with stab wounds to their head and ropes around their neck.

The pair were reported by relatives to have been robbed of a motorbike, iPhone and jewellery.

Narin said police believed that the perpetrators killed the women at the scene.