A solder's left leg was blown off when he stepped on a landmine while patrolling near the Cambodian-Thai border in Preah Vihear province on Saturday night, the victim’s commander said yesterday.

Ly Luon, a soldier from the Choam Ksan district operational base, was returning to the unit’s headquarters with his eight-man team when he triggered the unexploded ordnance near a walking path in Sra Em commune’s Tealkong village, said Khan Samen, a deputy district military commander, who said the soldier’s leg was blown off by the blast.

“They walked on that path every day but never had a problem,” Samen said, who noted the incident happened after a torrential downpour within an area mined during the civil war between government forces and the Khmer Rouge.

“The victim was sent to Preah Vihear province’s 16 Makara Referral Hospital.”

The incident came after another mine exploded in neighbouring Siem Reap province on Friday when it was stepped on by a cow, which was killed instantly.

The acting police chief of Chi Kraeng district, Sok Sothearvuth, said that the case occurred in Khvav commune’s Srorng village.

“[Farmers] let their cows wander, and that cow appears to have stepped on a mine, blowing its body into pieces.”

Meanwhile, in the same district, workers building a fence at a heath centre in Kampong Kdei commune uncovered an 85mm unexploded shell on April 29, which has since been collected by CMAC.