Two men were brutally beaten to death and thrown into a river by a mob of villagers after the pair was accused of stealing a motorbike near the killing fields memorial in Dangkao district, police said.
More than 40 people from Prek Thleung village in Cheung Ek commune surrounded the suspected robbers after a motorbike coming from Phnom Penh was stolen, Chuob Sok Heng, deputy police chief of Dangkao district, said Sunday.
Chuob Sok Heng said four men were riding two motorbikes along the road while a NGO worker was driving a motorbike alone in the opposite direction. The suspected robbers stopped the man by firing a shot in the air and took his motorbike, police said. The NGO worker then called for help while running after his stolen motorbike.
Hearing his cries for help, villagers blocked the road with a large piece of wood and rushed in with knives, hoes and sticks.
Two of the four suspects immediately fled into the woods while the other two were seized by the mob, Chuob Sok Heng said.
Police found one body early Sunday along the Prek Tknoat riverbank but villagers did not allow police to examine the corpse. Instead, the villagers pushed it back into the river. Police could not relocate the body and were unable to identify the men driving the motorbikes, Chuob Sok Heng said.
Dozens of suspected robbers or thieves have been killed or injured by angry mobs in the past year as extrajudicial killings appear to have increased.
Political and spiritual leaders have appealed to Cambodians to stop these violent outbursts and allow the police to arrest suspects.
But authorities have been criticized for standing idly by while the killings occur only meters from them, or have been accused themselves of shooting suspects they claim were trying to escape.
A general lack of confidence in the courts to bring robbers to justice has been cited as the reason for mob killings.
