The police in Cambodia are investigating a lover’s quarrel that turned violent on Tuesday when a 23-year-old garment worker was doused in acid, allegedly by the wife of a man she was in a relationship with.

The victim, 23 year old Pheng Sreyla pictured above, yesterday described how she was held and beaten by the wife and several family members of her lover, 36-year-old Choem Vuthy.

“While they were beating me, the suspect grabbed two bottles and poured them down on my head,” she said.

“I felt very hot on my head, face and my eyes; it was like fire.”Sreyla, a garment worker at a small handicraft manufacturer, was collecting her paycheck when she was allegedly set upon by Vuthy’s wife, Chhum Savun, 34, along with Savun’s mother, Huy Van, 66, and siblings, Chhum Savarng, 37, and Chhum Sarvuth, 28.

“Now I cannot see, and the doctor told me that if I still cannot see in two weeks, I will be blind forever,” Sreyla said through tears.Returning to her Ralaing Kroeul commune home for police interviews, Sreyla said she was seeking justice. She is three months pregnant with Vuthy’s child.

“I know that I love her husband, but I have never wanted them to get divorced. I told the suspect that I am willing to be the second wife,” she said.Sam Sak, the chief of the Kampong Speu provincial police’s serious crimes bureau, said yesterday that three people had been arrested after Pheng Sreyla was attacked with acid outside the garment factory where she worked.

“We arrested three people who are involved in the case, but they are not the ones who poured acid on the victim,” he said.

“We are detaining them at the police station for questioning, but we have not yet set a date to send them to court.”Police believe the garment worker was attacked because of her relationship with another woman’s husband.

Both the woman and her husband – who police declined to identify – are at large and police are on the lookout for them.

Mr. Sak said the three people who were arrested are the brother, sister and mother of the suspect’s wife.

“The three people we arrested did not help to pour the acid, but they tried to stop the perpetrator from doing it,” he said.

“These three people may be released if they were not involved with the crime. But only the court can decide.”After taking samples of the acid and looking at Ms. Sreyla’s injuries, police believe it was a less potent form of battery acid.

“The reason they poured acid on the victim was because the victim has a lover’s relationship with the perpetrator’s husband and the victim did not stop her contact with the man, although she was told to stop many times by the perpetrator,” Mr. Sak said.

“The perpetrator has never used violence on the victim, but she was told to stop her relationship with the man and did not.

“That is why she could not control her anger anymore and she poured acid on the victim’s face when she walked out of the factory.”Ms. Sreyla suffered injuries to her face, arms and other parts of her body before being taken to a hospital in Phnom Penh.

Mr. Sak said her injuries were not serious and she left the hospital yesterday to give a statement to provincial police.

According to the complaint filed by Ms. Sreyla, she had been in a relationship with the woman’s husband for three years and commune police officials had been called multiple times to stop the relationship by the man’s wife.

Surprisingly, they heeded the calls and did try to end the relationship, making both Ms. Sreyla and the woman’s husband promise not to see each other again.

But they continued to see each other and continued an intimate relationship.

“Intentional killing” with acid in Cambodia is punishable with up to 30 years in prison.