A domestic dispute in Svay Rieng on Wednesday left a girl, 5, with an amputated arm and her 63-year-old grandmother in critical condition.

Romeas Hek district police chief Som Samol said that suspect Kong Kosal, 28, was drunk when he had an argument with his wife who, following a physical altercation, ran away with their daughter.

When Kosal’s aunt confronted him about beating his wife, he attacked her with the axe, along with her granddaughter.

“Because of where the incident took place, police were very far away, so by the time we arrived, the suspect had already run away. We are working very actively to find the man, [but] we have not found the suspect yet,” Samol said.

James McCabe, director of NGO the Child Protection Unit (CPU), said the body is assisting in the investigation, calling the attack “brutal, as a weapon was used which resulted in a girl’s arm getting amputated”.

According to McCabe, there were 23 cases of child homicide last year. Just last week, an 11-year-old girl in Koh Kong province was killed by strangulation after being raped by her uncle.