A Thai farmer showed off his homemade bunker as he refused to flee his home during the border conflict with Cambodia.

Weera Thangthong, 69, defied evacuation orders as he remained at his orchard, just a mile away from the conflict-torn frontier in Trat province, eastern Thailand.

Despite explosions and gunfire heard nearby, the villager said he 'wanted to observe the situation first' and had built his own bomb shelter on his property.

Footage shows Weera showing the 10ft refuge made with a concrete culvert pipe reinforced with rubber tyres on December 11.

He said: 'If clashes break out, I will evacuate immediately to let soldiers secure the area. But I am worried about my durian and mangosteen orchard that needs watering. I have a shelter where I can take cover.

'I want to encourage our soldiers to take decisive action. We don't want this conflict to drag on and waste time.'

Fighting flared up on Sunday as the Thai army claimed Cambodian troops fired on a Thai engineering team building an access road in a disputed border area.

The Thai military said nine soldiers and three civilians have been killed, while more than 120 personnel were injured.

Cambodia said nine civilians, including a baby, have died and 46 others were wounded.

More than 500,000 people have been displaced on both sides.

Cambodia's assault has largely been wayward, unguided rockets fired indiscriminately into Thai territory, while Thailand has used precision drone strikes and fighter jet strikes on military sites.

The BBC has reported that Thailand has provided 'compelling evidence' that Cambodia has also 'laid new landmines in bad faith' that have continued to injure Thai soldiers along the border.

Former Khmer Rouge henchman and Cambodian dictator Hun Sen - who was a leading figure in the genocide of his own people in the 1970s before assuming power in 1985 and overseeing the murder of thousands of opposition figures and critics - has repeatedly claimed that he wants peace and that Thailand is the aggressor.

Thai officials claim the ongoing border confrontations are a threat to national security, and the areas must be secured.