By shoon after and artorn pookasook
Sisaket, Thailand (Reuters) -then the Thai and Cambodian armies started to shoot at their disputed border on Thursday, Komsan Prachan thought his family was far enough away from the fighting to be safe.
The agricultural worker received a phone call from his children's school and asked parents to collect their children, so he and his wife went to pick up their 14-year-old daughter, 9-year-old son and their son's friend.
On the way home they stopped at a gas station at about 3 km (2 miles) from their house.
Moments later, an artillery shell entered the station and destroyed the attached 7-Eleven supermarket where the Komsan and the friend family had started to buy snacks.
“The only thing I thought was then was my wife and children,” the 40-year-old told Reuters in the house of a family member in the province of Sisaket.
“I lost all hope. I could stand alone and look.”
More than 30 people, mainly citizens, have been killed on both sides of the border since the fighting started on Thursday, in what has become the worst escalation between the two Southeast Asian countries in more than a decade. Both parties have accused each other of starting the conflict.
Komsan could hear explosions early on Thursday morning, but he did not think he had to evacuate because his house was not in a danger zone.
“I didn't think it would hit this area. There was no bunker in that area because it was considered a safe zone.”
Komsan and his wife met in high school. After a few years they married in Bangkok and brought them up their two children.
“They have in my life was the greatest blessing,” he said.
More than 130,000 people are displaced by the fighting, with schools that are forced to close their doors. Local university campuses are used as temporary hiding places for those forced to flee their houses.
“The war is good for no one. They both have to talk peacefully with each other. The war only brings loss, loss and losses,” Komsan said.
The surviving relative husband and father accused the Cambodian government of without distinction to civil areas.
“This is not just war, this is murder.”
(Reporting by Shoon Naing and Artorn Pookasook; Edit by John Mair and Jan Harvey)
