Kon Mom district police in Ratanakkiri province are on the lookout for a man who allegedly raped an underage Kreung indigenous girl when she was walking alone in the forest near her home on Friday.

The identity of the suspect remains concealed as the case is still under investigation.

The incident happened when the victim, 13, whom police declined to identify, was walking alone from a farm to the forest, about 300 metres from her village.

She was returning home from school at the time, said Kon Mom district police chief Phouk Borith.

When she walked past a scavenger who parked his motorcycle about five metres away, he pulled her into the forest, about 150 metres from where he had parked his bike, and raped her.

“She told us she got hit many times until she lost consciousness, though we found no wounds on her. The provincial referral hospital has confirmed she was raped,” he said.

Rights group Adhoc said four cases of underage rape-murder have been reported in Ratanakkiri province so far this year.

Its provincial coordinator, Den Khornny, said the number of rape cases is increasing in Ratanakkiri, where villagers make a living by farming and collecting plants from the forest, leaving their children behind.