PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Huge Explosion in southwestern Cambodia over the weekend An accident that killed 20 soldiers at an army base appears to have been caused by soldiers mishandling ammunition, a senior military official said on Tuesday.
The blast in Kampong Speu province on Saturday afternoon also destroyed military vehicles and four buildings at the base, and also damaged homes in a nearby village.
Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Mao Farah said the soldiers were transferring ammunition from a truck to a storage facility when the explosion occurred, killing them instantly. He said 11 more people, including soldiers and nearby villagers, suffered minor injuries, most of them from pieces of damaged buildings rather than shrapnel.
held by Cambodia A mass funeral for the victims will be held on Sunday. In an explosion.
An initial, but not yet official, theory was that one of the rounds exploded as soldiers were unloading ammunition from a truck and piling it on the ground before moving it to a storage facility, he said. Ta. That set off a chain reaction, Mao Farah added.
However, he said it would be difficult to determine the exact sequence of events because everyone involved in the unloading died.
Mao Farah said the site had been sealed off and demining workers from the Cambodian Mine Action Center were removing unexploded ordnance from the area.
In March 2005, a nighttime explosion at an armory in the northwestern provincial city of Battambang caused shells and bullets to fly for an hour, killing at least six people and causing panic.
A 2014 report by the Swiss-based group Small Arms Survey highlighted the dangers of improperly storing and mishandling ammunition, calling it a “global problem.” The report noted that from 1979 to 2013, there were more than 500 incidents involving unplanned explosions at military facilities.