Siem Reap Provincial Court yesterday charged a 25-year-old man with four counts of rape after he held six high school and primary school students hostage in a house and raped four of them early on Friday, officials said.

The accused, Sorn Narith, who was intoxicated, allegedly entered the home occupied by six students of Chi Kraeng district High School at about 12.30am on Friday, deputy police chief Sok Sothearith told the Post.

The suspect was wielding an axe and forced the eldest of the students to tie up his roommates, before Sorn Narith tied up the 17-year-old, Sok Sothearith added.

“The suspect raped the victims one after another between 1:30am and 4am,” he said, adding that a passerby alerted police who  “arrested the suspect as he was leaving the house”.

Provincial prosecutor Ty Sovinthal said the suspect was sent to the court on Sunday morning and charged the same day. “The suspect can be sentenced to more than 20 years in prison because he raped four women and seriously wounded one male student,” he said.

Provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, Mao Yin, said one of the raped women was a younger sister of the male student who was the caretaker of all the students living in the house. The suspect struck him unconscious with the axe and then raped his sister, Mao Yin said.