Phnom Penh police are searching for the teenage driver of a BMW SUV who is accused of threatening a crowd of witnesses with a handgun on Tuesday after speeding through an intersection and crashing into a Toyota sedan carrying a man and woman, seriously injuring both.
The accident occurred shortly after midnight at the intersection of streets 51 and 360 in Phnom Penh’s Boeng Keng Kang I commune, according to Seng Chanthorn, chief of investigations at the municipal traffic police bureau.
“The BMW slammed into the left side of the Corolla and launched the female passenger, who was not wearing a seat belt, from the car window” and wedged the unconscious driver between his seat and the steering wheel, Mr. Chanthorn said.
Both were rushed to a private clinic for emergency surgery, he said, adding that he could not remember their names.
The impact demolished the Toyota’s engine block, but the BMW X6 continued for a few meters before hitting a street light, at which point the heavily tattooed driver emerged, Mr. Chanthorn said.
When a group of witnesses attempted to surround the driver—believed to be in his late teens—he drew a pistol from a holster on his hip and leveled it at the crowd, then escaped on foot, he said.
“We are trying to identify him via his license plate number.”
