Update on singer Pov Panhapich

Pov Panhapich (Photo: Everyday.com.kh)

Cambodian singer seriously injured in shooting attack (4:25 p.m.)

AP

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- A popular Cambodian singer was seriously injured when a gunman repeatedly fired on her in the capital on Friday, police said.

Pov Panha Pich, 23, was shot twice - once each in the neck and abdomen - as she got out of her car to attend a morning class at an English-language school in the capital, Phnom Penh, said Touch Naroth, the city's police chief.

Police were searching for the attackers, identified as two men who drove up on motorcycle. The gunman fired from the back seat with a handgun and the driver sped off after the shots were fired, he said.

Pov Panha Pich appears regularly in concerts, local television programs and advertisements.

There was no known motive for the shooting, but police said they believed the attack was not carried out by robbers, since none of her belongings were stolen.

"It looks more like a revenge attack resulting from a dispute," Touch Naroth told reporters at the Phnom Penh hospital, where she was initially treated. She was then driven to neighboring Vietnam, which has more sophisticated medical facilities than Cambodia.

Ieng Sithul, director of the Khmer Artists Association, described Pov Panha Pich as a gentle person who grew up in a well-educated family.

She was not the first singer targeted by a shooting.

In late 2003, popular singer Touch Sunich was critically wounded in a shooting in Phnom Penh. She was treated in the United States, where she now lives. No motive was ever determined for that attack.