An evening of high-flying, radio-controlled amusement led to at least one night in police custody for a Taiwanese man caught flying a drone above the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district on Sunday, officials said yesterday.
“He was flying a drone in front of the Royal Palace, and the drone moved inside the Royal Palace,” said Chey Chumneah commune police chief Chhann Kao Ny, adding that the man was arrested and detained overnight at the Interior Ministry’s general department of anti-technology crime.
Sou Bousou, deputy director of the department, would not give the identity of the Taiwanese national or say if he had been released. Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak could not be reached.
City Hall announced a ban on flying drones in the center of the city without a permit in 2015 after a German national’s recreational drone flew into the palace ground and supposedly frightened Queen Mother Norodom Monineath.
Multiple tourists and foreign filmmakers have apparently missed the memo, however, but are generally released hours after being arrested and “educated” about the city’s drone rules.
