Residents in Thailand's Surin province fled their homes to hide in an underground bunker amid explosions and gunfire on Thursday, 24 July.
Thai and Cambodian soldiers fired at each other in multiple contested border areas, injuring three civilians, after diplomatic relations were downgraded in a rapidly escalating dispute.
Clashes appeared to be ongoing in several areas; the first occurred in an area where the ancient Prasat Ta Moan Thom temple stands along the border of Thailand’s Surin province and Cambodia's Oddar Meanchey province. Both Thailand and Cambodia accused each other of opening fire first.
Relations between the neighbours have deteriorated sharply since May after a Cambodian soldier was killed in an armed confrontation in one of the several small patches of land both countries claim as their territory.
