A group of Cambodian military construction engineers were hospitalised and one of them died last week after drinking eight bottles of locally distilled whiskey in Banteay Meanchey’s province’s Thma Puok district.

District deputy police chief Chea Slonh said that last Thursday, the group of five engineering soldiers took part in a drinking contest, downing the whiskey until they all passed out.

He said the local authorities immediately sent them to hospital, however, one of their number, a 23-year-old man, died. The four others have since recovered.

District health official Chav Nary said the soldiers became ill due to drinking too much, but the 23 year old was in too critical a condition to be saved when he arrived at the hospital.

“We didn’t find any chemical substance in the whiskey that would have caused the death – the soldiers overdosed on alcohol,”he said.