Police are looking for a suspected drug dealer who shot and injured a police officer after a shootout erupted during a drug raid at a pub in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district on Monday night.

Uniformed and plainclothes officers had surrounded and stormed the Srey Ra Pub after they spotted a plate-less car they suspected belonged to the gunman, said a Sen Sok district police officer who declined to be named, as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The raid was a joint operation by anti-drug police and deputy prosecutors from the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, he said.

He added that the suspect exchanged fire with police officers as they entered the pub, and around “two to three shots were fired” before an injured officer was carried out and swiftly taken to hospital. In the ensuing chaos, the suspect managed to slip away, he said.

Leader of the raid Kheiu Samon, director of the Anti-Drug Department at the Interior Ministry, declined to comment.

After the operation, police raided two houses thought to belong to the suspect, seizing five packets of Ice and a gun.