A 29-year-old man died in Battambang province’s Sampov Loun district on Friday morning after driving over an old antitank mine while preparing a patch of land for cultivation, an official said.
“The victim was plowing the land on a tractor when he hit the antitank landmine and it exploded, seriously injuring the victim.
He died on the way to the hospital,” said Keo Pov, provincial coordinator for the Cambodian Mine Action Center, the government’s demining arm.
“This antitank landmine exploded with really strong force. Both the victim’s legs were blown off and his chest was also seriously injured,” he said, identifying the victim as 29-year-old Sroeun Vet.
Mr. Pov said the man had been hired to prepare the land to be planted with longan trees and that the landowner—whose identity he claimed not to know—and a group of friends had been standing just 40 meters away when the explosion occurred.
“It’s lucky that other people did not get injured,” he said.
