Twenty soldiers were killed and several others injured in explosions of weapons stockpiled at a military base west of Phnom Penh on Saturday, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said.
Hun Manet did not disclose details of the explosions in his Facebook post, and it was not immediately known what caused the incident in Kampong Speu province.
“I am deeply shocked to receive the news of the ammunition explosion incident,” he said, expressing his “deepest condolences” to the families of those killed.
Pictures on social media showed a destroyed one-storey building wreathed in smoke, with residents of a nearby village also sharing images online of broken windows.
Pheng Kimneang, who lives near the scene, told the local news website Kiripost that the biggest explosion took place at 2.30pm, with smaller blasts continuing until 3.40pm, causing plumes of smoke to rise into the sky.
A factory is located near the scene and a public school sits about five kilometres from the site of the explosion.
“The explosion was so big that it shattered the glass of the factory and forced workers to evacuate suddenly,” Kimneang said. “It also had a significant impact on nearby residents.
“According to my neighbour, the explosion likely occurred because they had recently stored new bombs and possibly didn’t handle them correctly, especially given the hot weather.”
Witnesses said many of the victims were military or their relatives.
After the first explosion, police immediately started evacuating people who live in the area.
In the statement, Hun Manet said he had ordered the Minister of National Defence and the Commander-in-Chief of Royal Cambodian armed forces to urgently arrange funerals for the soldiers who died.