Cambodia uses 'life-saving' rats to sniff out deadly landmines

A handler holds a rat undergoing training to detect mines during a training on an inactive landmine field in Siem Reap province. - Reuters/Samrang Pring

SIEM REAP, Cambodia: Pit, only two and with just one eye, needed only 11 minutes before he detected a deadly mine buried in a Cambodian field, work that humans with metal detectors could have taken up to five days to investigate.

But Pit is not human. He is part of a team of elite rats, imported from Africa, that Cambodia is training to sniff out landmines that still dot the countryside after decades of conflict.