Sunken warship raised from riverbed after two decades
Sunken warship raised from riverbed after two decades
Sunken warship raised from riverbed after two decades
A warship buried for four decades on the riverbed in Kampong Cham province was raised yesterday to the mainland with more than 16 tonnes of unexploded ordnance (UXO) onboard.
According to the UXO Disposal Task Force, it took six months, starting in October last year, to lift the vessel to the surface.
The warship was believed to have sunk in Po village, Svay Po commune, Srey Santhor district in the 1970s, during the civil war.
The old warship had many cracks and it had sunk to a depth of 27.5 metres and was almost buried in the sand.
UXO Disposal Task Force deputy chief Eam Van said the team involved in the raising operation had discovered more than 16 tonnes of UXO in the vessel.
Mine authorities took eight days from March 31 to yesterday to destroy more than one tonne of ammunition found at the site.
Van said some 10 percent of recovered UXO were destroyed due to their poor condition, while the good ones will be sent to the mines museum for display after they are cleaned and deemed safe.
He added that the salvage team is faced with the mammoth task of collecting the scattered ammunitions around the sunken vessel.
“The operation to clear unexploded ordnance buried under the water at this point of time and this initiative is an unprecedented historical achievement for Cambodia,” he said.
The lifting of the sunken vessel and recovering the UXO, Van said clearly shows that Cambodia has the expertise, ability and capacity to carry out the operation efficiently and effectively especially to clear unexploded ordnances whether on land or sea.
“This is another feather in our cap and a pride for the Kingdom,” he added.
Mine authorities have been searching for and collecting munitions in the riverbed of the Mekong River since October 2020. The team recovered a total of 15,282 kilogrammes of ammunition, as well as six human remains and other weapons.
