The rotting corpse of an unidentified man has been found in Stung Treng province’s Siem Pang district near the border with Laos, according to a Cambodian police official.

Bun Hieng, deputy commander of border police regiment 701, said yesterday that a group of wildlife hunters reported the body to local authorities on Tuesday. No cause of death was given, but a military official speculated that Lao soldiers may somehow be involved.

Hieng said the possibility of a cross-border shooting is a source of fear. “We’re afraid that Lao soldiers will shoot us when we go there, because it is [an undemarcated area],” Hieng said.

Mey Bunpon, military commander of Regiment 101 in the district where the body was found, told television station Apsara Net that his soldiers first came across the corpse on Sunday. He estimated the man was killed about a week ago, adding that around that time, Lao soldiers had crossed the border and gunfire was heard.

The Laos Embassy in Phnom Penh could not be reached.