A mother, father and their 16-year-old daughter have been found murdered in Phnom Penh’s Chamkarmon district, their bodies apparently slashed with knives and beaten with bats.

Municipal Police Chief Touch Naruth said the bodies of the three victims –Ry Nalin and her parents, 52-year-old Ry Saron and 46-year-old Ne Sovannary – were found in their home in Village 7 with their hands tied behind their backs and their throats cut.

He said the three victims had multiple injuries inflicted with a variety of weapons.

“The suspects used a rope and killed the victims by stabbing them with a knife, [and also attacked them with] an axe and a bat. It is a cruel murder,” he said.

He said police suspected a group of men had taken part in the killings, and that there was a high likelihood the suspects had some kind of relationship with the family.

“I can say with 90 percent [certainty] that the suspected men knew the victims before, or they had a business relationship,” he said.

Village chief Toch Koun said he believed Ry Nalin had probably been killed when she returned home from school unexpectedly at around 10am.

He said the bodies were discovered by Ry Nalin’s 22-year-old brother, Ry Ratha, who visited the house at around 11am.

Chan Soveth, senior monitor for the rights group Adhoc, said there appeared to have been an increase in murders recently.

“I have not yet summed up the number of murders for this year. However, I notice that murders in Cambodia have gone up. We are concerned about it,” he said, and added that the “majority of suspects escape”.

The killings bring to five the number of multiple murders reported in Cambodia since July.

The most recent such case occurred on October 9, when a 47-year-old woman, her 24-year-old daughter and a 17-year-old waitress were shot dead in Kandal province’s Takhmao town.