An Australian and a Cambodian were killed and a second Australian injured when a landmine was accidentally detonated during a military training exercise west of Phnom Penh, police say.

The Australians were military trainers and another two Cambodian soldiers were also wounded in Kampong Speu, 50km from Phnom Penh, police said. Their names have not yet been released.

Police said the mine detonated at a tank base after a war-era bomb was detected underground and then picked up.

Kampong Speu provincial governor Vy Samnang told the Phnom Penh Post it was believed the casualties had been shooting at targets at about 2pm local time on Thursday when they noticed something on the ground.

“He said they went to pick up the object, a Russian-made bomb, which then exploded,” The Post reported.

Cambodia is littered with unexploded ordnance, a legacy of three decades of civil war. However, casualty figures have steadily come down over the past two decades thanks to an international clearing effort.

Kampong Speu provincial hospital health department director O Vann Then said the three injured people had received “light injuries” to their hands.

“The body of the Cambodian soldier has already been taken out by family while the Australian body is still at the hospital waiting to be taken by the Australian embassy,” Vann Then said.



The army is also investigating the blast, said defence ministry spokesman Chhum Sucheat.

A spokesman for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in an emailed statement that Australia was providing consular assistance to the families of an Australian man killed and another injured in Kampong Speu.