Illegal loggers and local residents allied with them fought forest rangers in a national park for 10 hours Saturday last week before police could confiscate illegally cut timber the rangers had discovered.

The Yok Don unit seized the timber and ranger Nguyen Quang Thu was tasked with driving it to the rangers’ office.

But on the way, disgruntled loggers climbed onto the car and tried to toss the logs off. They managed to take control of the car and threw away around two cubic meters of logs.

Rangers then asked for backup from local border guards, who helped retake the car and recovered all the timber.

Loggers then enlisted the help of hundreds of local residents to block the roads so rangers could not exit the border guard station with the contraband, according to police reports.

The loggers and residents then began trying to break in to destroy the logs in a bid to erase the evidence, investigators said.

Cao Thanh Vinh, police chief of Buon Don District, then asked his unit to help bring the timber to his office, which it did successfully.

Investigators said Nguyen Duc Truong, a known logger in the district’s Krong Na Commune district, had been in charge of the illegally-cut timber.

Truong has been caught transporting illegal timber and attacking forest rangers on duty several times, police said.

Source: VNA