The Kandal Provincial Police’s Rapid Response and Media Team has clarified that an incident involving a suspect wielding a firearm and hijacking a vehicle on the Phnom Penh Sihanouk Expressway on the morning of Saturday, March 29, was not a simple robbery, but one of two reported carjackings by a desperate fugitive.

According to the police, the case began with a snatch and grab theft, carried out by two men on motorcycles. They targeted a victim riding a motorcycle on National Road 4. Alert police officers captured one suspect, while the other fled.

During the pursuit, the fleeing suspect fired a gun at the police officers, although no injuries were reported. The police continued the chase, forcing the suspect back toward National Road 51.

His accomplish was less nimble, and was captured by the police following an earlier snatch and grab, committed on motorcycles. Kandal police

The suspect then escaped onto the expressway, where he hijacked a Lexus SUV, driven by a family who had stopped on the roadside. He fired one shot into the car, which narrowly missed the driver, shattering his side window. The driver stopped and surrendered the vehicle to the desperate criminal, who then used it to flee.

Police offices later located the vehicle, crashed and abandoned, in Kandal province’s In Ang Snuol district, where the gunman reportedly carjacked another vehicle and escaped.

The authorities are currently hunting for the suspect, who is reportedly well known to the police for his extensive criminal record.