A 12-year-old boy died on Saturday after an unexploded B-40 rocket he was playing with detonated on a farm in Ampil village, in Battambang province’s Bavel district, authorities said yesterday.

The boy is the fourth victim – with two deaths and two injuries – of unexploded ordnance from January to mid-February in Bavel district, according to Horm Chantha, Battambang provincial mine coordinator.

The boy was hit with debris in the face and chest after striking the B-40 rocket with a rock, prompting it to explode and causing his instant death, Chantha said.

Touch Chanarith, Bavel district police chief, identified the boy as Theang Dear.

Before the incident happened at 10:30am, a villager was ploughing a rice field when the ordnance was unearthed. The villager picked it up and left it on the dike, Chanarith said.

The young boy had spotted the shell there and begun hitting it with a stone, he continued, adding that villagers had seen the boy striking an object, but had no idea what it was until the blast.