Police are on the lookout for a British man after a young Cambodian woman was found with her throat slashed in his Phnom Penh hotel room on Sunday, authorities said yesterday.

Daun Penh district police officer Seng Kosal said that British citizen James Green is the primary suspect in the murder of an as-yet-unidentified 20-year-old Cambodian woman who had been staying with him since Christmas Day at his room at the Bolyna Palace Hotel.

“She was killed by stab wounds and cuts by a knife on her throat and neck. After the killing, the suspect took the mattress to cover her body, and hid her under the bed in the hotel room,” Kosal said. “And he managed to escape from the hotel.

“She was found dead and naked by a hotel cleaner when she opened the door to go in to clean the room,” he added.

The victim’s body was sent for cremation at a pagoda in Meanchey district, Kosal said.

“So far, we do not know exactly what the reason for the victim’s murder was. We are now seeking the suspect in order to bring him to justice and punish him under Cambodian law,” he concluded.

An employee at Bolyna Palace, who asked not to be named, said yesterday that Green had checked into the hotel on December 25, and brought a young woman to stay with him at the hotel that night.

“On December 28, 2013, at about 11 at night, he asked to get his passport from the hotel receptionist, and said that he was taking it to get money from the bank in order to pay for his hotel room,” the employee said. “But on that night, he left the hotel without paying any money for his room fee.”

When Green did not return the next day, the employee continued, a cleaner entered the room and found the victim dead, and hotel management notified the police.

Officials at the British embassy could not be reached for comment yesterday.