Two farmers armed with only a stick and a cleaver were almost gored to death during a fight with a wild boar in Stung Treng’s Siem Pang district on Wednesday.

Mouk Veng, 46, and Morn Lan, 22, were visiting their farmland in Tma Keov commune to check for forest fires when their four dogs started barking in the distance.

The men initially ignored the dogs but, upon hearing a strange bellowing, followed the noise into the forest where they found the dogs surrounding the 50 to 60kg boar, according to commune police chief Bai Thorng Samai.

The farmers joined the fray armed with a stick and a long-handled cleaver but came off second best. After the boar charged Veng, striking him with its tusks, Lan tried to help, only to become the next target.

“They all were attacked by the wild boar and injured in the arms, thighs, bottoms and waist,” said Samai.

“The dogs’ bites made [the boar] run away, or [the farmers] would have been gored to death in the forest.” The injured men tried to walk to their home 3 kilometers away before they were put on a boat and taken to a health centre.

Hou Sam Ol, a coordinator with rights group Adhoc, said that many farmers also hunted for extra food, especially during the dry season. They sometimes brought dogs along to help them find nearby prey, he said.

The police chief insisted that the boar’s two victims were not hunters.