Thirty pieces of unexploded ordnance were found and collected by the Cambodian Mine Action Centre yesterday in Pursat province after they were discovered by a villager at a construction site.

Vorn Saveth, Phnom Kravanh district police chief, said the war remnants included mortars from heavy weapons – of 80 and 100 millimetres – M67 grenades, as well as other ammunition.

“The villager was digging the ground to build a house, and he found it,” he said.

The villager reported it to police, who sought help from a CMAC official. According to Saveth, the ordnance was left over from the civil war and was found near a former Vietnamese military base.

After being alerted to the weapons discovery, a CMAC team visited the site and collected the mortars and ammunition to store in a safe place before destroying them.

According to a CMAC report, by the end of 2016, the organisation had cleared 1,400 square kilometres of land since its founding, removing more than 1 million anti-personnel mines and nearly 24,000 anti-tank mines.