A 51-year-old farmer was killed when an unexploded piece of ordnance was set off while he was ploughing his farmland in Banteay Meanchey province on Saturday.

Mey Saman, chief of Malai district police, said yesterday that the victim was killed immediately when his tractor ran over the anti-tank mine in his plantation.

“His tractor was completely damaged because of the explosion of the anti-tank mine, which was left after the war,” Mey Saman said.

Siem Hak, the deputy director for Cambodian Mine Action Centre’s Demining Unit 1 in Banteay Meanchey province, confirmed that this is the first death caused by an anti-tank mine explosion in the province this year.

He added that on February 24 a man was seriously injured and his tractor destroyed by a similar situation with a UXO explosion, but he survived the blast.

A 52-year-old farmer was killed on Sunday in Battambang province’s Samlot district, when he stepped on an anti-personnel mine while he and his wife were clearing land in their corn and cassava fields.

Last year Cambodia recorded its first annual increase in casualties resulting from UXOs since 2005.