Police in Phnom Penh’s Prek Pnov district are searching for suspects who threw away a box containing 10 guns, including two rifles, and bullets near a lake in Prek Pnov commune.
Local people found the box and alerted the police.
District police chief Chhin Kimthuy said police are working to identify the suspects.
“We sent these weapons to the municipal police on November 8 for safekeeping. Now we are searching for those who dumped the weapons there,” he said.
Deputy commune police chief Nam Samkhan said two villagers found the weapon box, which was locked, at around 1am on Sunday when they left home to harvest vegetables near the lake.
They pulled the box open and found guns and bullets and then reported the find to the police.
“We encourage people who find such things to report to authorities immediately,” Samkhan said.
Police found one carbine rifle, one M16 semi-automatic rifle, three K54 pistols, two Luger P08 pistols, three K54 magazines and 108 bullets.
There were also three M16 magazines with 60 bullets, two magazines for the carbine rifle, each containing nine bullets, one pistol case, one knife and one bottle of black spray paint.
Samkhan said the offenders may have planned to commit an illegal act or cause social chaos and ditched the weapons when they saw a roadblock set up by the authorities to check for illegal weapons in front of Prek Pnov high school.
Municipal police spokesman San Sok Seiha could not be reached for comment on the case.
