Phnom Penh: 20 soldiers have been killed in an ammunition explosion at an army base in Cambodia. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said this. The blast took place at the army base in Kampong Speu province to the west of the capital.
‘I am deeply shocked to receive the news of the ammunition explosion incident. I would like to pray for the soul of the soldiers to rest in peace, and also wish the soldiers and victims a speedy recovery,’ Hun Manet said in a statement on Facebook. He also said that the families of those killed would receive roughly $20,000 each, while injured soldiers would get $5,000.
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Cambodia’s army said the incident was a ‘warehouse ammunition explosion’, that had destroyed a truck fully loaded with weaponry. An office building as well as nearby barracks were destroyed, with 25 nearby homes also battered by the resulting explosion.
Cambodia is littered with discarded ammunition and arms from decades of civil war from the 1960s. In 2005, five Cambodians were killed and three injured after an explosion in a major military arms depot some two kilometres outside the northwestern town of Battambang. Deaths from mines and unexploded ordnance are more frequent, with roughly 20,000 people killed in Cambodia since 1979 and twice as many wounded in landmine and unexploded ordnance accidents.
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