A travelling salesman lost his leg to a landmine on Monday after going hunting outside of a village with which he was unfamiliar in Banteay Meanchey province’s Thma Puok district, police said.

According to deputy district police chief Kuy Yann, traditional medicine salesman Ly Roth had ventured 300 metres outside a village in Kouk Romiet commune, near the Thai border, to hunt with a slingshot. Being an out-of-towner, Roth was clueless to the prevalence of mines in the area.

“After hearing the explosion, [we] went to the site and found the victim,” Yann said yesterday. “His right leg had been blown off, and his left leg was seriously injured.”

Yann added that Roth was at first admitted to the district hospital, but had to be transferred to the Cambodia-Japan Hospital in Mongkol Borei district for the operation.

“My son’s right leg was cut off from the knee in order to avoid a fatal [infection],” Ly Huort, the victim’s father, told the Post, adding Roth was unconscious for 30 hours after the explosion.

Prior to the incident, police said Roth and a band of performers were in town from Siem Reap to sell traditional medicines.

Kork Romeat commune police chief Nit Meath said the area Roth was in is marked with warnings to ward off trespassers, but villagers routinely ignore the signs. In January, he said, a man harvesting bamboo shoots was killed by a landmine.