On November 18, an armed prison break occurred outside the Svay Rieng Provincial Court in Cambodia.
A group of Vietnamese armed men attempted to abduct six Vietnamese prisoners suspected of online gambling and fraud, triggering a gunfight. A Vietnamese woman played a key role in the break-in; her striking good looks attracted attention after her arrest.
Surveillance footage shows a woman entering the courthouse to wait for the transport vehicle. As officers unloaded the prisoners, the woman pulled a pistol from her blouse and handed it to one prisoner, who immediately opened fire. The woman and the six prisoners then rushed out of the courthouse and escaped in the vehicle.
The prisoners, armed, rushed outside, initially causing panic among the police; some officers were even so frightened that they lay down and tried to crawl under the vehicle. Surveillance video shows the entire prison break was highly organized, with the female accomplice playing a crucial role.
Fortunately, the police reacted quickly, and about an hour later, after a vehicle chase, arrested one of the escaped prisoners near a pond on the outskirts of the city. That evening, the remaining four Vietnamese prisoners and one Cambodian prisoner were arrested.
No deaths were reported during the entire incident; only one police officer sustained minor injuries, and the other prisoners inside the court were not significantly affected.
The Cambodian General Department of Prisons stated that all six escapees were Vietnamese nationals who were arrested in January on suspicion of drug trafficking, online fraud, and other crimes. Police subsequently launched a large-scale manhunt, and all seven suspects have now been apprehended. Some media outlets reported that the armed prison break was suspected to be perpetrated by a Vietnamese criminal gang.
Police have seized the escape vehicle, multiple AK rifles, a pistol, and other weapons. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior stated that it will conduct a thorough investigation into the source of the weapons (suspected to be smuggled from Vietnam) and the background of the criminal network.
The Vietnamese woman involved in the incident was arrested and accused of assisting in the prison break and suspected of being linked to a transnational criminal network. The woman is very attractive, and her arrest video has circulated online. She has reportedly been harassed after her arrest.