A DEPARTMENTAL director from Kandal province’s Kandal Stung district was shot and died in a failed robbery attempt in the early hours of Saturday morning, police said Sunday.

Kandal provincial police Chief Roeun Nara confirmed that Chhem Sambath was killed by two or three armed assailants near the boundary of Kandal’s Ang Snuol district and Dangkor district in Phnom Penh, in an apparent attempt to steal his motorbike.

A woman travelling with him, identified as Sin Nara, 38, suffered minor injuries, Roeun Nara said.

It was reported that the pair had been travelling on Sin Nara’s motorbike from a guesthouse in Dangkor district’s Choam Chao commune towards their home in Kandal, when they were targeted by the men en route.

The robbers demanded that the victim hand over the motorbike, but Sin Nara threw away the keys, and the robbers attacked the pair, shooting Chhem Sambath in the stomach and hitting Sin Nara in the head with a gun, police said.

Choam Chao commune police Chief Morm Hor said police arrived in time to disperse the group, confiscating Sin Nara’s motorbike as well as a second motorbike whose owner had not been identified.

He confirmed that Chhem Sambath had died on the way to Calmette Hospital. But police have yet to begin investigating the murder, due to an apparent dispute over jurisdiction.

Dangkor district police Chief Born Sam Ath said that officers from his district had confiscated the motorbikes to protect the victims’ property, but that they were not responsible for the investigation. “The incident happened in Kandal province, not in my territory,” he said.