More than 1,000 rifles, machine guns and homemade weapons are awaiting destruction after having been confiscated by authorities across 12 districts in Siem Reap province since late 2015, an official said yesterday.

The weapons were collected by the provincial department of weapons and explosives, which on Monday transported them to a warehouse to prepare them for disposal, said Lieutenant Chhet Nha, chief of the provincial explosive weapons office.

“We collected a total of 982 . . . weapons from all districts,” he said. “Most of them are recycled weapons and were collected little by little from the forest. Some of them were buried in the ground; some were from illegal acts, such as robberies and illegal wildlife shootings.”

Among the weapons are 291 AK-47s, 100 CKC rifles, five B69 air guns, six RPD gun machines, 15 AR15-style rifles, seven RPK rifles, 192 air rifles and 351 homemade rifles.

“We are waiting for an order to have them burn down in the future,” he said.