Kampot provincial police have arrested two men for the alleged rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl in the early hours of the morning.

“We have detained two suspects,” deputy provincial police chief Mao Chan Mortheara said. “One has confessed, the other denied [involvement] but said he was present.”

Provincial police and district police in Teuk Chhou, where the body of Sou Nita was found, declined to name the suspects.

The two men, allegedly drunk, passed Nita’s house at about 1am, while she was urinating outside, Mortheara said. They allegedly kidnapped and raped her, stole a pair of earrings she wore, then held her face under water until she drowned.

A villager found Nita’s body at 5am, wrapped in a blanket on the front doorstep of a neighbour’s house about 100 metres away from her own home, said Nob Chanpheap, deputy chief of Teuk Chhou district police.

“We have arrested the suspects, who both live in the victims’ village,” Chanpheap said.