Two small cases containing 12 hand grenades were uncovered in Battambang province’s Kors Kralor district by a farmer clearing his land on Sunday.

According to a post on the military police’s Facebook page, a farmer in Kors Kralor commune was clearing land when he unearthed two cases containing the hand grenades and reported his discovery to local authorities.

The grenades are now being kept at district military police headquarters and awaiting deactivation by officials from Cambodia Mine Action Centre (CMAC).

Phon Ravuth, a district policeman, said the military police and district police went to inspect the grenades after receiving the report. The grenades, made in the US, were “still active”, he said.

“We let the military police keep them as they are more expert than police in such matters,” he said.

Ravuth added that the site where the grenades were discovered was a battlefield in the 1980s and 1990s, noting that villagers often found unexploded ordnance when clearing farmland

In separate case yesterday in Pursat’s Veal Veng district, villagers discovered the site of a former military base with over 500 mortar rounds while foraging in a forest in Anlong Reap commune.

Anlong Reap commune police chief Dy Sunheng said the decades-old munitions had been secured at the former base awaiting action by CMAC.