Australian Boradcasting Corporation
A young Cambodian girl was killed and two of her relatives seriously hurt when a rocket they were trying to salvage for scrap metal detonated.
Ly Sovan, police chief of Udong district, says the blast happened when the 13 year old girl tried to break open the rocket with a metal pipe.
He says the girls mother and seven year old brother who had been searching for scrap material with her, were also badly hurt in the explosion.
The accident happened some 40 kilometres from the capital Phnom Penh.
Cambodia is struggling to recover from nearly three decades of conflict which only formally ended in 1998.
Millions of mines and other pieces of ordnance are still strewn across the country.
Organised mine clearing efforts began in 1992 and 252 square kilometres have so far been cleared.
Intensive public education campaigns have also dramatically reduced the number of mine casualties.
About 2,900 square kilometres of mine-infested land remains.
Ly Sovan, police chief of Udong district, says the blast happened when the 13 year old girl tried to break open the rocket with a metal pipe.
He says the girls mother and seven year old brother who had been searching for scrap material with her, were also badly hurt in the explosion.
The accident happened some 40 kilometres from the capital Phnom Penh.
Cambodia is struggling to recover from nearly three decades of conflict which only formally ended in 1998.
Millions of mines and other pieces of ordnance are still strewn across the country.
Organised mine clearing efforts began in 1992 and 252 square kilometres have so far been cleared.
Intensive public education campaigns have also dramatically reduced the number of mine casualties.
About 2,900 square kilometres of mine-infested land remains.
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