Cambodia police at Svay Rieng province’s Bavet town denied Viet­namese media allegations that a man had his finger chopped off by gangsters there as part of a ransom demand, officers said yesterday.

Keo Kong, police chief of Bavet town, said he had received no news of casinos keeping hostages and cutting off body parts.

“We are close with [neighbouring Vietnam province] Long An police ... they would have reported it to us,” Keo Kong said.

Viet­namese media over the week­end reported a Vietnamese national had been held hostage in the Las Vegas Ca­sino in Bavet and had his finger chopped off by loan sharks as part of a ransom demand.

Police chief Lim Eang, who controls all casinos in Bavet, similarly said such reports were often fabricated. “We have tried to investigate these reports before, but we have not found one single case to be true,” he said.