On 19/11, Colonel Kem Vannareth, deputy police chief of Cambodia's Svay Rieng province, confirmed the recapture of five Vietnamese inmates. Their "movie-like" escape from the provincial courthouse occurred the previous day.
On the morning of 18/11, an escort vehicle transported the Vietnamese inmates, along with one Cambodian prisoner, to the Svay Rieng provincial court for drug charges. Before their arrival, another group of five Vietnamese individuals, including a woman, reached the court in two cars. The cars parked outside the court gate, while the woman, wearing a mask and a cap, entered the courtyard, posing as an inmate's family member.
As the six inmates were escorted from the vehicle, the woman quickly approached and handed a handgun to one of them. The inmate immediately uncuffed himself, seized the gun, and pointed it at the escorting police. Two security officers, armed with batons, noticed the woman's suspicious action but were too late to intervene.
"The inmate snatched the gun from the woman and fired several warning shots into the air", Vannareth said. "He fired as he, the woman, and the other inmates ran to the gate and got into the waiting cars outside".
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Images of the six inmates released by Cambodian officials. Photo: Khmer Times |
As the group fled, unarmed police sought cover and raised an alarm. An officer with an AK rifle then emerged, firing warning shots, but could not stop the escapees.
Police immediately launched a pursuit. About 90 minutes later, they found one of the two escape vehicles had lost control and crashed into a roadside pond on the outskirts of Svay Rieng. Police arrested the first escapee from this vehicle, identified as Le Van Thien Luong, at 10:36. The other car continued to flee, prompting Cambodian officials to deploy additional forces for a night-long manhunt.
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The suspects upon their arrest on 18/11. Photo: Khmer Times |
Kheang Sonadin, spokesperson for Cambodia's General Department of Prisons, confirmed on the evening of 18/11 that all six inmates who escaped from the court, along with the woman who supplied the gun, were apprehended on the outskirts of Svay Rieng. Cambodian police have not yet released further details on the group's identities or the circumstances of their arrest.
By Ngoc Anh (Source: Khmer Times)
