About 100 kilograms of decades-old bullet casings were discovered by villagers digging up land to build their homes in Preah Sihanouk province’s Stung Hav district yesterday.

According to Commune 1 police chief Phak Puthea, a round of expert inspections found that the bullet shells had been emptied and no longer contained gunpowder.

“The bullets have been used already; they are just the shells . . . not unfired bullets,” he said, adding that the bullets were used for anti-tank guns.

Nen Bunrorn, the head of the weapons, explosives and ammunition management office of Preah Sihanouk province, said the old “shells . . . cannot explode. We are keeping them in a safe place at the provincial police warehouse now.”

He added that the Cambodian Mine Action Centre will be retrieving the shells for disposal as soon as possible.

According to Puthea, the site where the bullet shells were found was a former military warehouse during the civil war in the 1980s.