Two boys in Oddar Meanchey province’s Banteay Ampil district were injured on Saturday as several balloons that had drifted over from Thailand exploded, leaving them with burns on their hands, faces and bodies, a police official said yesterday.  

Twelve-year-old That Sab and 10-year-old Yak Samrith had been herding cattle with a third boy on Saturday afternoon when they noticed in the sky more than 100 balloons in two clumps and attached to two banners bearing Thai writing, Banteay Ambel district deputy police chief Khul Phin said.

After climbing trees to catch the balloons and taking them to the ground to play with them, some of the balloons exploded, sending off sparks and burning two of the boys, Phin said.

“I don’t know what was in the balloons that caused them to burn like that,” he said, adding that the third boy had run to tell the two victims’ parents, who took them to the provincial referral hospital.

The boys’ burns were not too serious, Phin said.  

Phin said that after the accident, his men had collected the remaining intact balloons to investigate what had made some of them explode.

The banners to which the balloons were attached in Thai read: “We together combat drugs and play sports instead for our health” and appeared to be part of an education campaign in Thailand, he said.