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Thai-Cambodia conflict: woman saves cats by braving artillery fire
As nearly 140,000 people fled the border conflict, one seamstress prioritised evacuating her five beloved cats: Batman, Kung Fu, Cherry, Taro and Peng
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When the first salvo of Cambodian artillery screamed across her village, Thai seamstress Pornpan Sooksai’s thoughts turned to her five beloved cats: Peng, Kung Fu, Cherry, Taro and Batman.
“I suddenly heard a loud bang,” the 46-year-old told said. “Then our neighbour shouted, ‘They’ve started shooting!’ So everyone scrambled to grab their things.”
Nearly 140,000 people have been evacuated from the Thai frontier, fleeing with the belongings dearest to them, as the country trades deadly strikes with neighbouring Cambodia for a second day.
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Pornpan was hanging out laundry in her village in the border district of Phanom Dong Rak, but did not hesitate to corral her quintet of cats – even as the cross-border blasts rang out.
“Luckily, they were still in the house. I put them in crates, loaded everything into the truck, and we got out,” she said at a shelter in nearby Surin City, camping out alongside her fellow evacuees.
Tensions have been building between Thailand and Cambodia since late May, when a Cambodian soldier was shot dead in a firefight over a long-contested border region.
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