Evacuees rest as they take shelter in a gymnasium on the grounds of Surindra Rajabhat University in the Thai border province of Surin. Photo / AFP
Evacuees rest as they take shelter in a gymnasium on the grounds of Surindra Rajabhat University in the Thai border province of Surin. Photo / AFP
More than 100,000 people have fled the bloodiest border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia in a decade, Bangkok said on Friday, as the death toll rose and international powers urged a halt to hostilities.
A long-running border dispute erupted into intense fighting with jets, artillery, tanks and ground troops onThursday, and the UN Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis later Friday.
The Thai Interior Ministry said more than 100,000 people from four border provinces had been moved to nearly 300 temporary shelters, while the kingdom’s Health Ministry announced that the death toll had risen to 14 – 13 civilians and one soldier.
In the Cambodian town of Samraong, 20km from the border, AFP journalists reported hearing distant artillery fire on Friday morning.
As the guns started up, some families packed their children and belongings into vehicles and sped away.
AFP journalists also saw soldiers rushing to man rocket launchers and speeding off towards the frontier.
Calls for calm
The fighting marks a dramatic escalation in a long-running dispute between the neighbours – both popular destinations for millions of foreign tourists – over their shared 800km frontier.
Dozens of kilometres in several areas are contested, and fighting broke out between 2008 and 2011, leaving at least 28 people dead and tens of thousands displaced.
A UN court ruling in 2013 settled the matter for over a decade, but the current crisis erupted in May when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a new clash.
Fighting on Thursday was focused on six locations, according to the Thai Army, including around two ancient temples.
Ground troops backed up by tanks battled for control of territory, while Cambodia fired rockets and shells into Thailand and the Thais scrambled F-16 jets to hit military targets across the border.
Thailand accused Cambodia of targeting civilian infrastructure. Photo / The Royal Thai Army, Getty Images
Both sides blamed each other for firing first, while Thailand accused Cambodia of targeting civilian infrastructure, including a hospital hit by shells and a petrol station hit by at least one rocket.
Thursday’s clashes came hours after Thailand expelled the Cambodian ambassador and recalled its own envoy after five members of a Thai military patrol were wounded by a landmine.
Cambodia downgraded ties to “the lowest level” on Thursday, pulling out all but one of its diplomats and expelling their Thai equivalents from Phnom Penh.
At the request of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, the UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the deadly clashes, diplomatic sources told AFP.
