Garment Worker Stabbed to Death After Scuffle at Factory

Police in Phnom Penh are searching for a group of garment workers who stabbed their colleague to death at his home on Monday night following a brief scuffle outside their factory two days earlier, officials said Tuesday.

Morn Phan, 20, a line worker at the Weibo Best factory in Pur Senchey district, was stabbed twice near his heart shortly after 6 p.m. at his house in Dangkao district’s Pong Toek commune and quickly bled to death, according to commune police chief Vorn Saroeun, who is investigating the case with district police.

Mr. Saroeun said Morn Phan was killed by a group of five to six young men who also worked at the factory, and that he believed the victim was targeted because he stood up for himself after being bullied.

When the factory let out on Saturday evening, he said, the suspects used their motorbikes to cut off Morn Phan and his friends as they attempted to leave the compound on their own motorbikes. When the suspects began circling Morn Phan, he and his friends shouted at them and a shoving match ensued.

“They scuffled after the victims accused them of driving crazily in front of the factory,” Mr. Saroeun said, adding that the suspects retaliated after work on Monday night.

“At about 6 [p.m.], the victim drove back from the factory to his house and we think the suspects followed him,” he said. “After the victim abandoned his motorbike and ran into the house, they broke the door down and suddenly stabbed him two times in the chest.”

Mr. Saroeun said the suspects fled as neighbors rushed to help Morn Phan, but that he died almost immediately. He said police had identified some of the suspects and were seeking their arrest, adding that all of them hailed from the same hometown as the victim in Takeo province.

“This was a case of intentional murder and we will contact Takeo provincial police to [help] hunt the suspects,” he said.

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