Chroy Changvar district police have sent a suspect to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court and are in the process of identifying another for the alleged rape of a 19-year-old woman in Chroy Changvar commune last week.

Chroy Chongvar district police chief Siem Sothavuth said a 27-year-old suspect was sent to the court after he was arrested.

“I finished questioning the suspect and sent him to the court on February 27,” he said.

A Chroy Changvar district police official who asked not to be named said on Sunday that police were searching for another suspect who escaped.

He said the rape occurred in the early hours of February 26 near a pond by the mermaid roundabout in the commune.

He said a security guard saw two men and a girl sitting near a street light in the area.

Later, one of them threw her to the ground as the other watched for any witnesses. Moments later, the guard saw the man on lookout take the girl into some reeds by a pond.

Suspicious, the guard approached the two men to question them, after which he managed to detain one while the other escaped. He then notified the police.

“We are searching for the suspect who escaped,” the official said, adding that the 27-year-old suspect had no job or place to live and hailed from Prey Veng province.

He said that police had not yet determined the identity of the suspect who escaped. But they believe he is a snail and sugarcane seller because when police arrived at the scene, they saw a motorcycle attached to a cart selling snails.

“We are uncertain if the suspects knew each other as the one who was sent to court claimed not to know the suspect on the run,” he said.