AT least four people were seriously  hurt and 40 others arrested Sunday when a  long-simmering land dispute between two neighbouring communes in Siem Reap boiled over into violence, according to radio reports and officials.

Radio Free Asia also reported that one man had been killed when military police and soldiers opened fire during an altercation between villagers from neighbouring Anlong Samnor and Chi Kraeng communes. The injured - all of whom were hospitalised - and the dead man were

from Chi Kraeng commune, RFA said, although the death could not be confirmed by local officials.

The two communes have been embroiled in a dispute over a 92-hectare swath of farmland since December.

Siem Reap Governor Sou Phirin ruled February 2 that Anlong Samnor residents could continue farming on the land.  

RFA stated Sunday that violence broke out after residents from Anlong Samnor began harvesting crops they had planted on the land.

Sou Phirin told the Post Sunday that there had been four injuries, but he said that he had not heard of any deaths.

Sous Narin, a monitor for the Cambodian rights group Adhoc, told the Post that villagers also said there had been four injuries,  but also could not confirm the reported death.