A Chinese construction site manager was found hacked to death with an axe in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district on Monday night, police said yesterday.

According to a senior district police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, engineer and manager Cai Weilin, 42, was found dead by a group of friends at the New Town Apartment construction site in Por Sen Chey’s Choam Chao commune at about 8:30pm.

“He was beaten and chopped by an axe [two times] on his head by the perpetrators, and died in a pool of blood,” the official said yesterday.

“He was found dead by his Chinese friends, and they later reported it to our local police,” he added, noting that “the perpetrators have escaped”.

The body has been transferred to the Chinese Embassy.

The official characterised the killing as a revenge attack, saying the victim had been involved in a verbal dispute with five of his Cambodian workers earlier in the evening.

Weilin reportedly criticised the workers for being lazy and failing to follow instructions, angering the workers. The men allegedly returned later and killed him as he was working alone on the first floor of the construction site.

The official said that police have identified the suspects and are seeking their arrest.