A nighttime blast at an arms depot in northern Cambodia triggered an hours-long spray of shells and bullets yesterday, killing up to six people and injuring a dozen others, officials and witnesses said.

　　"People were fleeing the town in panic," said Kry Chamroeun, a TV station employee in the northwestern provincial town of Battambang. "I was asleep when there was a loud explosion. I came out of my house and saw a raging flame on the horizon."

　　The explosion occurred at 2:30am on Wednesday at an ammunition depot two kilometers outside Battambang, Deputy Police Chief Pen Rithy said.

　　Three villagers who lived near the warehouse and three other people were killed, he said. Another official, provincial military police chief Por Vannak, put the death toll at four and said 12 were injured, four of them seriously. He said the exact number of casualties remained unclear.

　　Officials were investigating the cause of the blast, said Tea Banh, Cambodia's co-minister of defense. He declined to discuss further details.

　　The warehouse held ammunition, mortars and heavy artillery shells that had been used during Cambodia's civil war, Pen Rithy said.

　　(The Associated Press)