A paid assassin, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing a 61-year-old woman and had served more than three years at the Kratie provincial prison, escaped on Sunday due to the prison guards’ “carelessness”.

Provincial deputy police chief Sum Sokhim said the prisoner escaped due to the clumsiness of prison officers.

“First the inmate got out of the pad-locked prison cell without the guards’ knowledge and then managed to escape from the prison compound. The guards made two terrible mistakes."

“Police are pursuing him. This is the prison officers’ fault. It has nothing to do with provincial police. We can only make arrests and send suspects to court,” he said.

The fugitive was identified in the provincial police report as Lek Chan Veasna, 28, from the province’s Kbal Damrei commune.

He was arrested by Sambor district police in November 2015 for murder. The report said the hitman was paid two million riel ($500) to kill a 61-year-old woman from the same village over a debt row.

He poisoned the victim’s dog before getting into her home and stabbing her to death.