A morning brawl at a busy intersection in central Phnom Penh yesterday ended with one man being attacked with a samurai sword. 

Shortly before 10am yesterday morning, the intersection of Sothearos Boulevard and Street 294 – near the Bassac apartments, locally known as The Building, in Chamkarmon district – came to a stand still as a fight broke loose.

Witnesses at the scene, who preferred to remain anonymous, said twenty to thirty men riding on motorbikes began ramming one another with their vehicles and attacking one another with fists and one sword. The brawl resulted in two 18-year-old men receiving medical treatment, one having been slashed with a sword.

Following the attack Chan Ratana, 18, sat inside the waiting room at Polyclinique Sokha, a private clinic located only a few feet from where the dispute took place. His lip bloodied, the teenager sustained a wound to his right leg after being rammed with a motorbike. He claimed he was unaware of what motivated the attack, which ended in his friend, Seila, being slashed with a sword.

Seila underwent medical treatment at the clinic where medical staff stitched two wounds that had “cut [him] to the bone”, said a staff member who did not want to be identified. He said he was cut near his right elbow and forearm, indicating that the wounds were between three to four inches in length.

Following the fight, three officers returned to Tonle Bassac commune’s police station to watch a Hollywood movie starring Chuck Norris, an American martial artist.

Police officer  Sal Sandos said he and his colleagues would investigate the fight.