After the Khmer Rouge took power, the National Bank of Cambodia was closed on April 18, 1975, and part of the building was blown up by the Khmer Rouge militia. According to Milton Osborne’s book Phnom Penh: History, Culture and Literature, the explosion was performed by a small group of Khmer Rouge soldiers. It was not an order by the senior leaders of Khmer Rouge. The purpose of the explosion was probably to get the gold being kept in the bank.