Two men were seriously injured on Friday when an anti-tank mine exploded beneath them as they plowed their farmland in Battambang province’s Sampov Loun district, local police said yesterday.
The victims, Yu Eangleang, 24, and Sar Rath, 42, were working in a field about 500 meters from their village in Serei Meanchey commune when they drove over the mine and set it off.
“The victims were burned over their entire bodies after their tractor plowed the anti-tank mine, which was buried in the land since the time of the Civil War,” said commune police chief Mut Ly.
After villagers heard an explosion, police rushed to the scene and found the men lying in a crater around two meters in diameter that had been created by the explosion.
“We found pieces of the anti-tank landmine lying nearby the two-meter pit, and the tractor of the victims was completely destroyed,” Mr. Ly said.
The two men are being treated at the provincial referral hospital and are expected to survive, district deputy police chief Chhet Seng said.
