POLICE in Kampong Speu province say they are trying to identify the body of a woman that was pulled out of a river in Samrong Tong district on Sunday.

Samrong Tong District Police Chief Phot Sophal said yesterday that local fishermen found the body when it got snagged on one of their fishing nets at around 4pm on Sunday. The body was wrapped in a sack at the time of its discovery.

“We couldn’t identify the body because it was already decayed and bloated,” he said, adding that the woman appeared to be between 17 and 20 years old. “It seems as if the woman was not a villager from this area, because no one is missing a family member.”

Phot Sophal said it was unclear if the woman’s apparent killing had involved a rape or a robbery, since an autopsy was just being conducted and had not yet returned any results.

The woman was about 1.5 metres tall and was wearing a sarong when her body was thrown in the river, he said. She also had a jewel embedded in one of her teeth.

The discovery follows a similar occurrence in Svay Rieng province’s Chantrea district last week, when a woman’s body was pulled out of a pond by villagers in Bavet commune. Police said the women was of a similar age.

Mao Pin Pirom, Bavet commune’s police chief, said yesterday that the body could not be identified and that police did not yet have a suspect in the apparent killing.