Police are continuing to hunt for two suspected thieves who fled into the forest after shooting dead a security guard in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district yesterday afternoon.

According to Choam Chao commune deputy police chief Nho Serey, the pair crossed paths with the security guard after running through the property of an abandoned house in Prey Tea village at about 2pm, following an attempt to steal an undisclosed amount of cash from a Chinese national, who was not injured.

“The security guard just took a look, and the armed robber shot him dead at the site,” said Srey, who said the victim was shot in the torso, but added an examination of the body was still ongoing.

Following the shooting, the men fled into a nearby forest, which was yesterday afternoon surrounded by 100 district and municipal police, Serey said.

Eng Sophea, chief of the Phnom Penh municipal penal police, a unit involved in the search, yesterday declined to discuss the case, saying that he was too busy trying to catch the suspects.