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Wednesday 16 January 2013

4 US explosives removal experts wounded in accident at Cambodian training center

File photo shows a demining expert (R) guiding members of an international delegation as they tour a landmine clearance site in northwestern Cambodia.
File photo shows a demining expert (R) guiding members of an international delegation as they tour a landmine clearance site in northwestern Cambodia.
 
Cambodia January 15, 2013

By Associated Press,
The Washington Post

PHNOM PENH - Four American demining experts were wounded Tuesday by an accidental explosion at Cambodia's main training center for the removal of unexploded ordnance, its director said.
Heng Ratana, the director general of the Cambodian Mine Action Center, said the accident occurred during a break in training sessions in the afternoon in the central province of Kampong Chhnang.
He said the four victims, two of them critically injured, were evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in the capital, Phnom Penh. The names of the men, who Heng Ratana said arrived in Cambodia last week, have not been released.
"Four U.S. personnel were injured today in Kampong Chhnang during a mine clearance training exercise," U.S. Embassy spokesman John Simmons confirmed.
While details of the accident were not clear, Meas Chamrouen, a trainee at the center, said machine gun ammunition had exploded, though the cause was unknown.
An estimated 4 to 6 million land mines and other munitions left over from three decades of armed conflict kill or maim scores of Cambodians each year, even though combat ended in the late 1990s.

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Four US demining experts hurt in Cambodian blast

Posted: 15 January 2013
News Channel Asia

PHNOM PENH: Four American demining experts were injured in a blast at a Cambodian training centre during a mine clearance exercise, officials and the US embassy said on Tuesday.

Two of the men were seriously injured in the explosion at the Cambodian Mine Action Centre facility in the central province of Kampong Chhnang, the centre's director Heng Ratana told AFP.

They were airlifted to hospital in the capital Phnom Penh, he said, adding the cause of the blast was not immediately clear.

US embassy spokesman John Simmons confirmed the incident.

"Four US personnel were injured today in Kampong Chhnang during a mine clearance training exercise," he said.

Nearly three decades of civil war left impoverished Cambodia one of the world's most heavily-mined countries.

In 2011 leftover landmines and other unexploded ordnance killed 43 people and caused 168 injuries including 33 amputations, according to official data.

- AFP/xq

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Four US demining experts injured in Cambodia blast 


Four American demining experts have been injured in a blast at a Cambodian training center during a mine clearing exercise, officials said.

According to the center’s director Heng Ratana, two of the men have been seriously injured in the explosion which took place at the Cambodian Mine Action Center facility in the central Cambodian province of Kampong Chhnang.

Ratana added that the victims were transferred to a hospital in the capital Phnom Penh.

Meas Chamrouen, a demining expert, said the incident, which was confirmed by US embassy spokesman John Simmons on Tuesday, was caused by the explosion of machine gun ammunition.

Landmines left from Cambodia’s 30-year-long civil war period have taken a severe toll on the impoverished people of the Southeast Asian country.

According to official data, 43 people were killed by unexploded ordnance in Cambodia in 2011, and 168 others suffered injuries and amputations.

TE/SS 

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