Kandal provincial police are on the lookout for a man after he hacked a 31-year-old man to death in Ponhea Leu district’s Phsar Dek commune on Sunday.

The National Police said the victim, Chuon Phin, a construction worker, was drunk and a villager named Hour, 27, gave him a lift on a motorbike to his home in Chey Odom village.

Once home, Phin began arguing with his younger brother Chuon Sophors, 24, but no fighting took place.

However, Phin grabbed a machete to cut a wooden ladder and his banana trees.

District police chief Duong Seng said Phin then carried the machete and went to his neighbours’ home where a few men were drinking.

He triggered another argument with the homeowner, a 37-year-old bee-hunter, and threatened to kill him, but the homeowner grabbed his own machete, hacking Phin twice on the head and chest.

Critically injured, his relatives admitted Phin to hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.

“Phin attempted to assault the suspect, but the suspect hacked him first,” Seng said, adding that the suspect escaped on a motorbike, taking his machete with him.

“The suspect’s machete is evidence, but we have not found it yet. We found only Phin’s machete,” he said.

Phin’s grandmother reported the case to the Phsar Dek commune police, who examined the scene and the body at the hospital and concluded that the death was from slash wounds.

They then allowed the family to take the body home for final rites.