Phnom Penh - A Cambodian electricity company worker was on the run after accidentally burying alive and killing a 13-year-old labourer, local media reported Monday.

Police said the boy was clearing rocks from a hole on Thursday where new power cables were to be laid when the excavator operator - unaware the boy was still in the hole - filled it with soil, the Cambodia Daily reported.

A police search began after the operator fled the scene and the electricity company paid the family 1,500 dollars in compensation for the youth's death. (dpa)