Detonator, Battery Prove Deadly for Young Man

A young man tending a rice field in Kratie province’s Chet Borei district died on Wednesday after inexplicably connecting an explosives detonator to a flashlight battery, according to local authorities.

Thmei commune chief Mom Khom said that Lim Sok, 18, had been lying in a hammock in a hut by the field when he connected the detonator and battery, triggering an explosion that seriously injured him in both thighs.

Mr. Khom said he did not know why Lim Sok might have connected the two devices and that it was probably about two hours before a relative found him.

“The victim was seriously injured in his thighs and lost too much blood,” he said.

Commune police chief Em Chankoma said his officers had not yet determined exactly what sort of device Lim Sok had connected to the battery, or why, but had ruled out the possibility that it was an old land mine because the blast was too small.

“It might have been a kind of fuse,” he said.

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