A rice harvester drove over a buried anti-tank mine in Battambang province on Tuesday, injuring two men when it exploded, officials said.
The men hit the mine at about 8:30 a.m. while passing over one of the earthen berms dividing the area’s many rice fields, and the explosion threw them about 6 meters, deputy Samlot district police chief Sam Korn said.
Plean Vuth, 28, broke his right leg and the driver, Soy Sokea, 24, was cut on the face by shrapnel, he said.
Both men were sent to the provincial referral hospital for treatment.
The province was heavily mined by government and rebel Khmer Rouge forces in the 1980s, but Mr. Korn said the specific area of Tuesday’s explosion had never been cleared.
Sung commune police chief Hun Sovath said locals had been farming the area for many years and that the mine had probably not been found or detonated until now because it was beneath a berm.
