A 27-year-old man was struck and killed early Sunday in Ibaraki Prefecture while he was trying to stop a stranger from driving his friend's truck away, police said.

The police said they are searching for the driver, who is suspected of stealing the truck and killing company employee Tomohiro Asayama in the 2:20 a.m. incident in a parking lot in Tsukuba.

Asayama was resting in a prefabricated hut near the parking lot after a barbecue there Saturday evening with his 37-year-old friend. He stepped outside after hearing someone start the truck's engine.

The truck struck Asayama and left the site. The police found the vehicle abandoned on a road 2 km away about two hours later.