Police in Preah Vihear province’s Chheb district arrested four Cambodian sugar company workers after a brawl on Sunday left two of their Chinese co-workers dead and at least one fellow Cambodian colleague seriously injured.

District police chief Ma Chhoudy said the brawl grew out of an argument that took place when a group of workers from Chinese-owned Rui Feng sugar company were eating and drinking together in M’lou Prey I commune.

“They never had an argument before; it was just when they got drunk,” he said. “Right now, we don’t have the real cause of this incident.”

Chhoudy said that he could not provide the identities of those involved yesterday but said the suspects were Cambodian and that a knife and a stick had been used in the attack.

“I’ve arrested four attackers, and we are preparing the documents to send to the provincial court,” he added.

Deputy provincial police chief Keo Chomeorn put the number of injured workers at two but declined to comment in detail out of concern that doing so could affect the case.

“Let me do the investigation first,” he said.