Thailand, Dec 10, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Artillery rounds echoed in the distance as Thai rubber tapper Boonkerd Yoodeerum settled into a folding bed, sheltering with his family under a bridge near the Cambodia border where fighting has erupted once more.

The 64-year-old was working when he heard explosions on Sunday near his home in eastern Thailad's Surin province, just a short distance from the border.

"My first thought was 'Oh no, not again'," he told AFP on Wednesday.

"Then we rushed here under the bridge for safety," he said as his wife and nephew rested on a bamboo frame in their makeshift shelter.

They fled to the same place where they had sheltered five months prior -- and years before, during previous outbreaks of deadly violence between the Southeast Asian neighbours.

The family are now among half a million evacuees seeking safety on both sides of the long-disputed border.

At least 14 people, including Thai soldiers and Cambodian civilians, have been killed, officials said, while jets, tanks and drones were waging battle.

Both sides blame each other for instigating the reignited conflict, which has expanded to five provinces of both Thailand and Cambodia, according to an AFP tally of official accounts.

Having seen similar events play out before, Boonkerd said he was frustrated that the decades-old territorial dispute again rumbled on with no end in sight.

"They said negotiations would bring peace," he said.

A truce was reached in July following intervention by US President Donald Trump, "but you can see how long that lasted. I don't trust it anymore," added the Thai farmer.

On the other side of the border, in Cambodia's Srei Snam, an open roadside area with makeshift tents houses hundreds of families, including many women with children.

Yin Bei, 30, fled home with her husband and their two-month-old daughter as soon as they heard loud blasts ringing nearby on Monday.

"Having such a war is very difficult for us. I have a baby so I am suffering," she told AFP. "I want this war to end quickly".

- 'Really end' -

Chea Chong said it was his third time being displaced as a result of the conflict.

"They are fighting so hard," the 73-year-old Cambodian man said. "Please talk to each other. We are neighbours... Just end it, we are suffering".

At an evacuation centre in Surin city in Thailand, Ratana Chantrai gently soothed her fluffy cat Look Gling.

Her home lies just five kilometres (3 miles) from the frontier with Cambodia, and she said the loud blasts from the previous outbreak of violence in July had given her severe anxiety.

"All I could think about was getting out and bringing our four cats to safety," she said.

She had packed bedding and a few clothes in advance, but was not sure when it would be safe to return home.

"The clashes shouldn't keep coming back and force us to flee again so often. I don't want the next generation to live with this," she said.

"I just want the fighting to end, really end".

Nittaya Sirithongkoon, a retired hospital worker, said she it pained her to see the two countries fighting.

"Cambodia is basically our neighbour, like family," she said, adding that many in her community spoke Khmer, Cambodia's official language.

"The politicians... keep fighting among themselves. I want the government and every political party to think about the nation first".