Prime Minister Hun Sen has instructed officials to continue searching for unexploded ordnance (UXO) in and around a shipwreck in the Mekong River and in four other areas of Kandal and Prey Veng provinces.

The wreck is a warship that sank during the civil war between 1970 and 1975.

Officials said the four areas include Kandal’s Lvea Em and Khsach Kandal districts and Prey Veng’s Peam Chor and Peamro districts.

Mey Sophea, commander of the UXO Clearance Unit of the National Centre for Peacekeeping Forces and Explosive Remnants of War Clearance (NPMEC-ERW), told The Post that the decision to continue underwater salvage operations came after the operation in Meanchey commune’s Veal village of Kampong Cham province’s Srei Santhor district was judged to be nearing completion.

Sophea said since October last year, the clearing operations in Kampong Cham has recovered 15,282kg of UXO, some weapons and skeletal human remains.