RESIDENTS of Battambang province’s Sampov Loun district have discovered a former Khmer Rouge weapons storehouse containing 67 Chinese-made CKC rifles, officials said yesterday.

Chum Sib, the district governor, said the stash was discovered while villagers were trying to plant cabbage. “We believe there are more ammunitions and weapons here because it is a former warehouse belonging to the Khmer Rouge in the 1980s,” Chum Sib said.

Kieng Sothy, deputy district police chief, seconded this assessment, but noted that weapons were “difficult to find because the persons who buried them died”. He added that the weapons were too old to be functional.

Khem Sophoan, chairman of the Governing Council of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre, said the area where the weapons were discovered could potentially be contaminated with land mines.