Police seized a Toyota Tundra carrying 12 pieces of high-grade luxury timber in Preah Vihear’s Tbeng Meanchey district in the early hours of yesterday morning.

However, the occupants of the vehicle escaped. Sy Sokhunthea, acting head of the Provincial Economic Police Bureau, said officers confiscated the vehicle and roughly 1.5 cubic metres of wood about 4am in Brame commune.

More than 10 police chased the vehicle and tried to block the truck, but the driver and a passenger fled into the forest, he said.

“We used cars to block them in the front and in the back … but the driver [and passenger] escaped into the forest,” he said.