Phnom Penh  - Cambodian police arrived in the nick of time to save a British man from a lynch mob after he allegedly savagely beat his girlfriend on the street, an officer said Monday.

David Finch, 42, of Birmingham, had allegedly been punching and kicking his 20-year-old Cambodian girlfriend on the footpath when his neighbours decided they could take no more, said Chhit Vuthy, deputy police chief of Psar Kandal 1 in the capital.

"They formed a mob and managed to hit him hard in the head but we arrived just in time and then they had to let him go," Vuthy said. "He has no respect for Cambodians, and they were angry."

Mob and extrajudicial killings of suspected criminals remain relatively common in Cambodia.

Finch, a long-term expatriate in Cambodia who ran and lived in his bar, Broken Bricks, had a history of violence and drugs were believed to be involved, police said.

Vuthy said he was unsure whether the father of one would now be deported or sent to court. The victim was taken to hospital with a suspected broken arm and bruising but released soon after.

The incident is the second of its kind since Cambodia banned marriages to foreigners last month , citing potential for abuse and exploitation of often poor and under-educated Khmer women.

Two weeks earlier a German man was charged with aggravated assault after breaking both his Cambodian wife's arms, repeatedly beating her and locking her in their house for weeks at a time. (dpa)