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Cambodians flee as blast at munitions dump causes panic

A nighttime blast at an arms depot in northern Cambodia triggered an hours-long spray of shells and bullets yesterday, killing up to six people and injuring a dozen others, officials and witnesses said.

"People were fleeing the town in panic," said Kry Chamroeun, a TV station employee in the northwestern provincial town of Battambang. "I was asleep when there was a loud explosion. I came out of my house and saw a raging flame on the horizon."

The explosion occurred about 2:30am at an ammunition depot about 2km outside Battambang, Deputy Police Chief Pen Rithy said.

Three villagers who lived near the warehouse and three other people were killed, he said. Another official, provincial military police chief Por Vannak, put the death toll at four and said 12 were injured, four of them seriously, but said the exact number of casualties remained unclear.

Officials were investigating the cause of the blast, said Cambodia's co-minister of defense, Tea Banh. He declined to discuss further details.

The warehouse held ammunition, mortars and heavy artillery shells that had been used during Cambodia's civil war, Pen Rithy said.

Explosions of heavy ammunition lasted several hours, and blasts of rifle and machine-gun bullets continued after sunrise, Pen Rithy said.

"Some heavy ammunition flew away and was reported to have landed about 20km from the warehouse," the deputy police chief said.

Officials were still determining details about what was stored at the site, Por Vannak said.

"Our priority at the moment is to ensure security by telling people not to get near the site and preventing thefts by opportunists," the military police chief said.

Taxi driver Kim Sophal said the explosion "shook my house." At a nearby hotel, "ceiling fans fell off and guests got out their rooms to the streets, some of them still in their shorts," he said.

The blasts broke glass windows at many houses in Battambang, Kry Chamroeun said.

Stray ammunition hit his television station -- about 300m from the warehouse -- damaging its roof and antenna and forcing the station to temporarily postpone regular broadcasting, he said.

Kry Chamroeun said local residents fled in panic reminiscent of when the murderous Khmer Rouge insurgents took power on April 17, 1975, but said he quickly realized that warfare had erupted anew.

"I knew quickly that it was the ammunition warehouse on fire, not war," he said.
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