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Old US bomb kills five in Cambodia

A bomb left over from the Vietnam War in the 1970s and found recently in a Cambodian river exploded, killing five children who were trying to cut it up for scrap metal, officials said yesterday.

An 18-year-old fisherman and his four younger brothers died instantly in the blast on Saturday afternoon in a village just south of the capital, Phnom Penh.

Local police chief Eav Chamroeun said one other villager was also severely injured.

The war-scarred southeast Asian nation is still littered with bombs dropped by US forces in their fight against communists in neighboring Vietnam.

Despite frequent public education campaigns, villagers continue to forage for old ordnance to cut up and sell as scrap.

Aid workers estimate several hundred people are killed every year by leftover mines and other unexploded ordnance from the Vietnam War.
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