A 5-year-old boy was found dead in Battambang yesterday after his babysitters allegedly twisted the child’s neck and tried to hack off his head with a handsaw.

Battambang provincial police deputy chief Chet Vanny said that the murder took place at about 1am yesterday morning at Prey Thom village in Samlot district’s Kampong Lpov commune.

Two suspects – Heng Hin, 17, and Met Poch, 27 – have been arrested and confessed to the murder, according to Kampong Lpov commune police chief Keo Mus.

The suspects allegedly said the boy, Kha Panha, had been left in their care by his father Choy Kha, 45, at his farmhouse.

Panha began crying for his father, at which point the suspects said they tried to comfort him. When that failed, they allegedly twisted his neck before grabbing a saw and hacking at his neck and body until he died.

Vanny said he believed the pair had been using drugs.

“The suspects consumed drugs and the murder might have been driven by intoxication,” he said.

Mus said that Panha’s mother had previously been arrested for dealing drugs and his father fled the scene of the crime after finding the boy, apparently fearing arrest over unrelated matters.