At least five people were injured when a piece of unexploded ordnance (UXO) detonated in Banteay Meanchey’s Mongkol Borei district on Monday. Phon Salim, a district police inspector, said the explosion occurred after a man purchased the projectile from a group of children and then battered the UXO with an axe until it detonated. The man was injured, as were some children who were watching him. “It was a careless act, but no one was killed. They were only slightly injured,” he said, and added that all the victims were taken to Mongkol Borei hospital. Recent figures from the Cambodia Mine/ERW Victim Information System (CMVIS) showed that total casualties from land mines had dropped by 45 percent during the first quarter of the year compared with the same period last year.