Anti-economic crime police in Pursat province arrested four fishermen and seized more than 10 boats, some 400 kilograms of fish and five sets of illegal fine-meshed trawling nets totalling some 2,000 metres in length in a protected area on Monday.

Meas Bunthoeun, chief of provincial police unit, said yesterday that the operation took place on the Tonle Sap lake with the cooperation of Fisheries Administration officials in Bakan district.

Though authorities managed to arrest four men – whom they identified as Vietnamese nationals – the rest of their fishing party of more than a dozen managed to escape.

“After the arrest, the four suspects were sent to Pursat town police station and the evidence was sent to [the] Fishery Administration office. Now they are being interrogated,” Bunthoeun said, adding that the four are expected to be sent to court for processing today.