A Villager in Banteay Mean-chey province yesterday unearthed a huge cache of unexploded ordnance and weapons while digging for wild rats to eat and sell in Sisophon town’s M’kak commune.

Kong Chanvey, 45, discovered the buried stash after pursuing a rodent to a hilltop behind his cassava field in Ben Chan village, according to Sisophon town deputy police chief Sam Broseth, who recounted Chan-vey’s testimony.

“He said ‘I saw the rat on the hill and I started digging. I got a few rats and I continued digging and then I saw another hole. Through the hole, I spotted the cartridges, and I hurriedly reported to the police to take those weapons and ordnances’,” Broseth said.

According to Broseth, who is in charge of explosives at the station, the cache included 11 B-40 rockets, two RPG launchers, a light machine gun, 100 machine gun bullets, a case of 700 cartridges for an AK-47 assault rifle and a Soviet-era CKC rifle.

Broseth said the equipment was subsequently impounded by the Cambodian Mine Action Centre for disposal at a later date.