A young girl was killed instantly and a woman badly injured when a street lamp fell on them yesterday morning in Banteay Meanchey province near the Thai border.

Sao Sarouen, Poipet town deputy police chief in charge of traffic, said yesterday that a truck carrying harvesting and ploughing machines caused the accident.

The truck snagged an electric wire hanging above the vehicle, Sarouen said, pulling a concrete electric post and a metal street lamp from their moorings. The lamp hit Heng Menghuor, 9, and her aunt May Sokunthy, 32, as the pair rode a motorbike to market.

“The street lamp fell onto the side of the aunt’s head, [but] she was wearing a helmet. The child died instantly at the site.” Saroeun said, adding that the child had been helmetless.

The truck driver, a Thai national, fled back across the border, while the girl’s body was taken to her family and her aunt was taken to hospital.

“Now our authorities are contacting Thai authorities to find and arrest the suspect and bring him to justice,” said Poipet police chief Thin Sindet.