Police yesterday were searching for a suspect believed to be involved in the rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl in the jungles of Pursat province on Sunday.

Local officers said the victim had been looking for firewood in the jungle with her brother when she disappeared on Sunday afternoon.

“An autopsy showed that the little girl was raped and strangled before death. The body had been thrown into the Tonle Sap river [where it’s] about 4 metres deep,” said Krokor District Police Chief Em Arun.

The body was found floating in the water by fishermen on Tuesday morning.

According to Phnom Pehn’s Child Protection Unit, which is assisting with the investigation, the family live in a large fishing village in Kompong Prak commune and a manhunt was under way there and in the surrounding area yesterday.

Arun declined to provide details about the suspect but said authorities hoped to make an arrest “soon”.