CHBAR MON, Cambodia (AP) — Funeral services were held Sunday. 20 soldiers killed A large explosion of stored ammunition at an army base in southwestern Cambodia injured several people and damaged nearby homes.
There was no official explanation as to what caused the explosion at the base in Kampong Speu province on Saturday afternoon, but there is no suggestion it was intentionally set off.
Defense Minister Tee Seiha presided over the Buddhist funeral on behalf of Prime Minister Hun Manet, which was attended by the victims’ relatives and comrades. The Cambodian flag covered the wooden coffin.
Villagers living nearby told The Associated Press on Sunday that they were shaken by the explosion because they had never experienced such a loud explosion before.
“I was repairing my house with construction workers when the explosion happened,” Chim Sothea said. “Suddenly, there was a loud explosion, the house shook, and the tiles on the roof broke. It fell down, but fortunately it did not fall into the house.”
Images showed several badly damaged buildings at the base, at least one with its roof blown off, and soldiers being treated in hospital. Other photos showed nearby houses with holes in their roofs.
Colonel Yuen Sokong, an army officer at the scene, said in a report to Army Commander Mao Sopan that four buildings on the base (three warehouses and one work facility) were destroyed and several military vehicles were damaged. He said he did.
Another villager, who asked to remain anonymous only as Sopal, said the army had blocked the road to the base and “villagers panicked, looking for a safe place.” He moved his family to his parents’ home far from the base. When he returned to his home a few hours later, he found his home undamaged, but other villagers’ homes had broken windows, doors and roofs.
Cambodia, like many countries in the region, has been suffering from a prolonged heatwave, with the province where the explosion occurred hitting a high of 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday. High temperatures usually do not cause ammunition to explode, but it can. reduce the stability of explosives If continued over a period of time, there is a risk that one small explosion can start a fire and cause a chain reaction.
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.
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