Eight Cambodians who illegally crossed from Oddar Meanchey province into Thailand to log rosewood were arrested by Thai soldiers on Friday, border police said yesterday.

Touch Ra, director of the provincial Cham Sagam border checkpoint office, said that his Thai counterpart sent him a report yesterday stating that soldiers in Thailand’s Sisaket province had arrested one

illegal logger on Friday morning, followed by two more sets of arrests in the afternoon.

No shots were fired and no one was injured, he added.

The arrested, from various provinces, including Kampong Thom, Preah Vihear, Kampong Cham and Takeo, are being detained and may face up to two years in a Thai prison.

“It would be difficult for us to seek for their release from Thailand, because what they did is illegal,” Ra said.

A statement from the Cambodia-Thailand border office says that the first half of 2012 saw 38 illegal loggers killed, 10 injured and 194 imprisoned in Thailand.

To contact the reporter on this story: Phak Seangly at [email protected]