Drunken arguments ended in deaths in two separate cases in Preah Sihanouk and Kampong Speu provinces on Saturday, police said yesterday.

In Preah Sihanouk’s Boeng Chum village, 42-year-old Vietnamese national, Hou Chiv Fung, was allegedly killed by a fellow countryman – identified as Yor Yang Ouk, 33 – who had thrown a cleaver at the left side of his chest after an argument.

According to Prey Nop district deputy police chief Chan Dara, the two men had met up with a few other villagers to go drinking that morning.

“They drank and argued with each other, causing the murder,” he said, adding that the victim had removed the cleaver from his body and thrown it back at the suspect, cutting him on the left shoulder, before he passed out.

A medical examination of Fung’s body revealed that the attack had resulted in a deep cut that penetrated his left lung.

Separately, in Kampong Speu’s Treng Trayoeng commune, a woman was killed after being violently assaulted by her drunken husband.

According to Phnom Sruoch district deputy police chief Suon Chan, 37-year-old Mork Sam Ath had returned home drunk and gotten into an argument with his wife, Vanh Chanlimel, 33.

“He beat his wife with the handle of an axe, kneed her several times in the chest and threw her on the ground,” he said, adding that Chanlimel had died while villagers were sending her to the district referral hospital.

“It was caused by a small matter, nothing serious.”