Khmer Rouge guerrillas fired on a mobile polling unit Thursday, wounding at least four people and forcing the election team to flee, U.N. officials said.
The attack in northwestern Cambodia was the first known to have halted one of the mobile voting teams, which were pushing toward Khmer Rouge territory in an attempt to reach as many voters as possible in the nation's first multiparty election since 1972.Associated Press newsman Bruce Stanley reported from Siem Reap province that B-40 rockets and rifle rounds slammed into the polling area at Kompong Kleang, 30 miles southeast of the provincial capital.
The province's chief U.N. voting official, Dermot F. Wheelan, said there was no doubt it was a direct attack on the polling station by Khmer Rouge guerrillas. This could not be confirmed.
He said small arms fire came from both sides of the pagoda after voting began. The voters scattered, then there was shelling from both sides, he said.
Bangladeshi soldiers of the U.N. peacekeeping force guarding the polling station returned fire with rifles and a grenade launcher, Wheelan said. An armored personnel carrier of the government helped repel the assault, he said.
He said the 45 election workers were evacuated, some by helicopter.
The wounded included two voters, a government soldier and a U.N. peacekeeper from Bangladesh.
Wheelan said the mobile teams would continue working Friday, the last day of the election.