A 19-year-old man was seriously injured when he stepped on a landmine in Poipet commune on Wednesday as he tried to illegally sneak across the border to work in Thailand, a local official said.
Ouk Borith, 19, was crossing the border with another man when the anti-personnel mine exploded, said So Channary, commander of the 911 border police unit.
“The victim was seriously injured on his right foot from the ankle down,” Mr. Channary said, adding that the victim was immediately sent to a hospital in Poipet City and later transferred to the Banteay Meanchey provincial hospital.
According to the Cambodian Mine Action Center, in the first three months of the year a total of 60 people were killed or inured by landmines, compared to 38 people in the same period last year. However, the total number of explosions decreased.
Areas near the Thai border were among the most heavily mined during the civil war that followed the fall of the Khmer Rouge.
