An ethnic Tumpuon man was attacked by a wild boar in Ratanakkiri province on Friday afternoon while he was hunting, police said yesterday.

Hor Hul, police chief in Keh Chung commune, indentified the victim as Roman Pouen, 45, who lives in Kieng village in Bakeo district.

Hul said the victim had gone to the forest behind his village to hunt when he was attacked by the 45-kilogram wild boar.

According to a police report, Pouen said he was about to go home when his dog started barking and running back and forth.

“Suddenly, I saw a boar chasing my dog,” Poeun told police, saying he tried to catch the boar with a tripwire. “I tightened the rope to a tree and waited for the boar, but instead it attacked me. I would have died if my dog was not there at the time.”

Pouen suffered from a severe wound on his left shoulder and a smaller wound on his left calf, and is being treated at the Bakeo district health centre, Hul said. The dog died after being gored in the throat as he was trying to help Pouen.