About 150 residents of Boeng Tamok lake in Phnom Penh protested earlier this month, claiming that they faced violent shoving and beatings, as authorities dismantled a bridge that they used to collect snails and access fishing areas, according to a report in RFA Khmer.

The community — made up of roughly 250 families who still live on the shoreline of the rapidly-disappearing lake — built the 80-meter bamboo bridge after developers started putting fencing up in the area, making it more difficult to access fishing areas, RFA reported. But on May 9, residents said, authorities acting on behalf of private companies demolished the bridge and physically prevented residents who tried to intervene: One woman, Soeun Sreysoth, said authorities used violence against her and beat her arms and legs, with 10 women total reporting being violently pushed and injured.

The protest was the latest in a long series of clashes in recent months between authorities and the remaining residents, who have lived on the lake for decades and refused to capitulate to impending evictions even as hundreds of other families have been forced from their homes. 

Boeng Tamok, known as Phnom Penh’s “last lake” as the others have been partially or fully filled in for development, has been increasingly cut up for private ownership in the past few years, with concessions favoring well-connected businesspeople and government ministries.

Nine residents, including Sreysoth, were placed under court supervision earlier this year and face charges of “intentional acts of violence and obstruction of public officials” that advocates say are politically motivated to quell protests.