Rocks were thrown and Samurai-style swords were brandished by foreigners and Cambodians when a fracas erupted at a bar in the Boeng Kak backpacker tourist area of Phnom Penh early Wednesday morning.
Two foreigners suffered minor injuries during the incident. Daun Penh district police said Wednesday that they did not know about the disturbance.
The incident began at about 1:30 am when roughly eight to 10 Cambodians reportedly attacked the Tiger Bar with rocks for about 20 minutes. At one point one of the group—who had been having a small celebration in the street outside the bar before the fight broke out—approached the bar wielding a sword, a member of staff identifying himself as Sunny said Wednesday.
Bar staff said the incident started when one of the Cambodians threw a glass at the bar. However, one witness said Wednesday that the violence was provoked by a foreign man inside the Tiger Bar who was throwing glasses into the street.
A member of Tiger Bar management, Kelly Adams, a British national, was hit in the head with a soda bottle during the attack. Adams said Wednesday that he was unhurt and no customers were harmed in the attack.
“It did get a bit nasty,” Adams said. “It was just a group outside that got together, occasionally we get it. They’re not rude or anything. We just tell them to move on.”
A second British national working at a nearby bar and who identified himself only as Adz said he was punched in the temple during the incident and briefly lost consciousness.
Adz said he was punched by one of the group of Cambodians while trying to disarm an unidentified foreign man of a second samurai-style sword, which the foreigner had also been wielding in the street.
“This is an area where people should be able to go out and drink quietly,” Adz said. “Cambodians were obviously [angry] with someone running up the street with a sword.”
