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 AFP. “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.
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.
Tit-for-tat trade curbs and border closures escalated into conflict on Thursday, and each side has accused the other of firing the opening shot in the battle now being waged with jets, artillery, tanks and troops.
At least 16 people have been killed, according to tolls from both sides, the majority of them civilians.
But Pornpan was well-prepared to save her felines.
“Since I heard about the possible conflict two months ago, I stocked up on food and bought cat carriers,” she said.
“If I leave the cats behind, they’d die.”
Alongside her cats, Ponrpan also evacuated nine other family members, including her elderly mother with Alzheimer’s.
The process took its toll once the adrenaline wore off midway through their escape.
“I was terrified the whole time. I was scared the bombs would hit us or the house,” she said.
“I had a panic attack in the car. My body went numb. I had to go to hospital during the evacuation.”
At the Surin city shelter her cats have been installed in their portable kennels — drawing curious children waiting out the conflict alongside their parents on the gymnasium floor.
Skittish from the sudden onset of gunfire, they are slowly recovering from their ordeal.
“One kept trying to escape its crate, wouldn’t eat and kept crying,” Pornpan said.
“Another one was panting -– maybe heatstroke. I had to splash water on it.”
