Six people were seriously injured Tuesday when two men kicked out of a wedding in Pursat province returned to the party with about 10 friends and attacked revelers with samurai-style swords, police said Wednesday.
Krakor district deputy police chief Morl Soth said the two men, Siek Savaon and Kheng Vibol, both 25, who were also injured in the fracas, were told to leave the wedding party at about 3 p.m. after another guest stepped on the foot of one of the men while dancing.
“They had an argument with guests who joined the wedding party while they were dancing, but other people prevented them from fighting,” he said.
“About half an hour later, they called their friends, and about 10 others with samurai swords rode their motorcycles to the wedding to attack the people.”
Mr. Soth said the wedding patrons managed to fend off some of the attackers with chairs.
“The guests used chairs to beat them, causing [Mr. Savaon and Mr. Vibol] to get head injuries before the local commune police intervened and arrested them,” he said. “The result of the fighting caused six guests to be badly injured on the head and other parts of their bodies.”
Mr. Soth said the other sword-wielding attackers managed to escape, despite the presence of two commune police officers at the wedding.
“They could not do anything because there were a lot of gangsters,” he said of the officers. “They just told the people to stop, but they didn’t listen.”
Mr. Soth said eight people, including the two suspects, were currently being treated at the provincial referral hospital.
Deputy provincial police chief Keo Sokunthea said authorities had identified more attackers and were currently searching for them.
“We obtained the identity of more suspects, so we hope we will arrest them as soon as possible,” Mr. Sokunthea said.
“Our police officers tried to receive permission from the doctors to bring the suspects from the hospital for questioning, but the doctors said they needed to stay.”
