Phnom Penh police are hunting a still-unidentified suspect in a capital nightclub shooting in the early hours of Monday morning that saw one security guard wounded by a bullet to the eye.

The shooter pulled up on a motorbike outside Epic Club in Chamkarmon district and fired a number of shots, two of which hit a security guard, Tonle Bassac commune police chief Sok Sam Uot said.

“The security guard got injured in left eye and right thigh by the bullets . . . He is getting treatment at the hospital,” Sam Uot said, refusing to disclose the victim’s name. “We are investigating the case.”

A fellow Epic Club security guard, who declined to give his name, said nine shots were fired at the club’s entrance at about 3am, as staff members were leaving the venue.

He said the shooter had gotten into a verbal argument with other revellers at the club, a glass was broken and the shooter left the venue before returning with a gun. “The victim’s wife told me that his eye was blinded because of the bullet, while his right thighbone might be shattered,” the security guard said.

“They wanted to make trouble . . .They will not get away with it and the authority will arrest them, because they know something about his identity after they checked the camera [footage].”

He added that the victim worked for the military police as his second job.

Another staff member, who also asked to remain anonymous, said he was decorating a Christmas tree at the club when the shots rang out.

“When I came out, I saw him lying on the ground injured,” he said. “I was not scared because I have seen this happen a lot.”