In my city there was a program on recently highlighting the dangers of finding deadly war time bombs buried in the ground on construction sites
War-Time Bombs Buried in Your Cities?
Context
Do construction crews in European cities unearth live explosives every now and then from previous wars?
War-time arsenal destroyed after Hong Kong discovery
HONG KONG, April 9, 2006 (AFP) - Bomb-disposal experts destroyed a huge cache of World War II era bombs and grenades found buried below a busy Hong Kong street by drainage workers, police said Sunday.
Despite their age, some 188 of the 588 items found in the densely populated Kowloon district contained live explosives, a police spokeswoman said, and had to be destroyed in controlled explosions.
"We received a report of 588 suspicious items found by workmen," she said. "We sent in bomb-detection robots to ascertain if any of the items were live."
The bombs, mostly grenade bodies, fuses, mortar shells and anti-aircraft ammunition, were discovered by a construction team at roadworks in the Cheung Sha Wan neighbourhood on Saturday night.
The spokeswoman said that 16 of the explosives were deemed too unstable to remove from the site and were destroyed in the street.
About 200 residents and shopkeepers were evacuated from the area.
The remaining live ammunition was removed and destroyed, while the rest of the items were left to be taken away by contractors, the spokeswoman said.
Police said they believed the armaments were British-made and left at the end of the war following the Chinese city's liberation from Japanese occupation.
Hong Kong was peppered with British and then Japanese military bases during the war and ordinance dumped at the end of the conflict is regularly unearthed on construction sites.
Police chief Dick Lee said there was a likelihood other such finds would emerge.
"There are areas in Hong Kong that still have the possibility of bombs buried," Lee told local RTHK radio. "When we find them we will deal with them."
Do construction crews in European cities unearth live explosives every now and then from previous wars?
War-time arsenal destroyed after Hong Kong discovery
HONG KONG, April 9, 2006 (AFP) - Bomb-disposal experts destroyed a huge cache of World War II era bombs and grenades found buried below a busy Hong Kong street by drainage workers, police said Sunday.
Despite their age, some 188 of the 588 items found in the densely populated Kowloon district contained live explosives, a police spokeswoman said, and had to be destroyed in controlled explosions.
"We received a report of 588 suspicious items found by workmen," she said. "We sent in bomb-detection robots to ascertain if any of the items were live."
The bombs, mostly grenade bodies, fuses, mortar shells and anti-aircraft ammunition, were discovered by a construction team at roadworks in the Cheung Sha Wan neighbourhood on Saturday night.
The spokeswoman said that 16 of the explosives were deemed too unstable to remove from the site and were destroyed in the street.
About 200 residents and shopkeepers were evacuated from the area.
The remaining live ammunition was removed and destroyed, while the rest of the items were left to be taken away by contractors, the spokeswoman said.
Police said they believed the armaments were British-made and left at the end of the war following the Chinese city's liberation from Japanese occupation.
Hong Kong was peppered with British and then Japanese military bases during the war and ordinance dumped at the end of the conflict is regularly unearthed on construction sites.
Police chief Dick Lee said there was a likelihood other such finds would emerge.
"There are areas in Hong Kong that still have the possibility of bombs buried," Lee told local RTHK radio. "When we find them we will deal with them."
1 - 20 of 43 Posts
In Germany you occasionally find bombs from WWII during construction.
Not in any populated areas, but there's a huge area on an Island called Amager where the Army and Navy used to test fire some 100-200 years ago, today that zone is highly dangerous and banned for the public.. the Military's EOD folks works fulltime on cleaning it up so the area can be used to expend on.
Another place in Denmark is the beaches on the west coast of Jutland where the Germans feared an allied invasion doing the end of WW2 and therefore highly fortified and mined the area ( Fortress Europe ) those mines pop up reguly both on the beaches themself or off the coast in the fishermens net - along with the naval mines and other goodies..
And then we have the chemical weapons on the ocean bed between Germany and Bornholm from WW1 - poor fishies!
Another place in Denmark is the beaches on the west coast of Jutland where the Germans feared an allied invasion doing the end of WW2 and therefore highly fortified and mined the area ( Fortress Europe ) those mines pop up reguly both on the beaches themself or off the coast in the fishermens net - along with the naval mines and other goodies..
And then we have the chemical weapons on the ocean bed between Germany and Bornholm from WW1 - poor fishies!
Not really a bomb, but in Quebec City, there's a tree that grew around a cannon ball that was shot at the city during the whole English/French fight for the city. You can still see and touch the cannon ball and I find it one of the coolest things ever.
world war II bombs (japanese) in particular. some that were discovered are now in display at the city museum (others include some guns, relics from a sunken japanese warship, a pair of spanish canons at the museum grounds, and other armaments). a few years ago there were reports that some bombs were digged out by farmers outside the city. in other parts of the country there were reports that some of these bombs exploded because of impact while digging. World war II bombs are still scattered elsewhere in the philippines. :runaway:
How about Berlin and other German cities?
hkskyline, look at my post above.
How often does that happen, and are there stories from some high-profile projects in the large cities about bomb finds?DiggerD21 said:hkskyline, look at my post above.
In Milan every years are found some dozens of WW bombs.
sometimes, when its are big ones entire nieghborhood are evaquated for an half day.
in the last years with the renovation of more than 10.000.000 square meters of old industrial areas it happened several time.
Milan was bombed for more than 4 years night and day and the 33% of the buildings were destroyed and another 17% were demolished after the end of the war for strong static problems.
on the Dolomites, an Alpine region between Veneto and Trentino in North-east Italy it's not rare found bombs of the First World War.
on the area there were many great battles between Italian army and the Austrian one.
in that map there is the City centre of Milano.
in black the destroyed buildings, in grey the building bombed (and demolished after the end of the war)
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sometimes, when its are big ones entire nieghborhood are evaquated for an half day.
in the last years with the renovation of more than 10.000.000 square meters of old industrial areas it happened several time.
Milan was bombed for more than 4 years night and day and the 33% of the buildings were destroyed and another 17% were demolished after the end of the war for strong static problems.
on the Dolomites, an Alpine region between Veneto and Trentino in North-east Italy it's not rare found bombs of the First World War.
on the area there were many great battles between Italian army and the Austrian one.
in that map there is the City centre of Milano.
in black the destroyed buildings, in grey the building bombed (and demolished after the end of the war)
Whilst at University in Germany, our building was evacuated because of a WW2 British bomb. we had two days off/down the pub 
Bomb finds were a regular occurence in Leipzig (former East Germany). Due to the amount of construction work, bombs were being found right left and centre.
Either we made shit bombs or dropped that many, I don't know.
Bomb finds were a regular occurence in Leipzig (former East Germany). Due to the amount of construction work, bombs were being found right left and centre.
Either we made shit bombs or dropped that many, I don't know.
i remember a few weeks ago, one or two construction workers died when a WWII bomb exploded in Manila.
Cleaning up World War II-era bombs and other explosives is steady business in Germany
4 September 2007
BERLIN (AP) - The earth shakes briefly in Berlin's Mittelheide city park, and a cloud of rain-soaked dirt rises over the ferns in the woods. Police have just detonated a football-sized anti-tank grenade from World War II.
More than 60 years after the war's end, removing unexploded bombs, grenades and artillery shells remains a full-time task for police and private companies all over Germany.
It's an occurrence so common that police explosives experts Thomas Mehlhorn and Joerg Neumann can joke about their delicate job as they sift warm pieces of shrapnel from wet dirt reeking of sulfur.
"When the weather isn't as bad as it is today, of course this job is fun," Mehlhorn said.
"It beats writing traffic tickets," said Neumann.
In Berlin, an average of 900 explosive cleanup operations take place each year. Of these, about 100 unexploded bombs are deemed too dangerous for removal -- a job for "sprengmeister," explosives experts like Mehlhorn and Neumann, who blow them up on site.
On a soggy Tuesday in August, workers from the Heinrich Heides GmbH company uncovered the anti-tank weapon during a typical day at the government-funded project to ensure the safety of public land. Often, it is construction or road workers who find the bombs.
"There are weapons of all kinds lying hidden everywhere in the ground," said Fritjof Luetzen, who heads hazardous waste and military ordnance disposal for Berlin. "Everyone who works in construction knows that if they spot something cylindrical or suspicious in the ground to drop everything and call the police."
British and American bombers dropped almost 2.7 million tons of bombs on Germany during WWII. Many went wide of their targets and did not go off, a buried legacy that affects construction, forestry, farming and fisheries.
Berlin, which was bombed heavily throughout the war and then captured by the Soviet army in a bloody battle in April and May 1945, has the most hidden bombs. The entire city is categorized as potentially dangerous.
The problem gets trickier with time as bombs corrode and destabilize. In an ongoing effort to find and remove the unpredictable relics, Luetzen's office pays private firms $2.87 million each year. The companies uncover an average of 87 tons of weaponry each year in public and private projects. In 2004 alone, workers found 160 bombs, 2,400 grenades, 1,500 explosive devices and 2,700 guns and other weapons.
It's not uncommon for entire neighborhoods and thousands of residents to be evacuated so workers can remove an old bomb. Most discoveries, like the one-ton Soviet bomb found at a construction site in Berlin's Lichterfeld suburb in July, are defused without incident.
While construction companies are not required to have their sites surveyed for bombs, most prefer to avoid accidents like one that killed three construction workers, injured eight bystanders, and tore through nearby buildings and cars in 1994.
At a company's request, the Senate Department for Urban Development hires a private firm to survey a site, a practice that experts estimate will keep weapons removal companies in business into the 22nd century.
Once they're hired, companies like Heinrich Hirdes consult the city's archive of historical documents and wartime aerial photos to determine which parts of a site are at risk.
The archive has two full-time employees who study the photos, taken by Allied planes during the bombing campaigns and acquired from the Americans for about $80 each. Researchers can tell whether certain bombs exploded by examining the smoke patterns in the photos, giving workers an idea of where to look.
Company employees know from their research that the woods they're surveying were in the path of Russian soldiers as they approached Berlin and began combing the area with powerful metal detectors. Small holes pock the ground where workers have unearthed rusty helmets, combat knives, artillery shells and bombs. Their work is entered into a computer system that records all bomb disposal work in the city.
Weapons removal projects go on across the Berlin year round, but residents aren't likely to know about them, even if they're next door.
"The key to this work is discretion," said Holger Kroenert, the Senate Department for Urban Development's weapons disposal expert. "It piques too much interest and can be dangerous."
In addition to live bombs and artillery shells, the first two hours at a sport park cleanup in Berlin's Neukoelln district, for instance, yields a dozen gas masks, combat knives, and a 1930's cigarette machine -- six cigarettes for 20 pfennig.
"Collectors would love to get their hands on the artifacts that workers dig up every day," Kroenert said.
4 September 2007
BERLIN (AP) - The earth shakes briefly in Berlin's Mittelheide city park, and a cloud of rain-soaked dirt rises over the ferns in the woods. Police have just detonated a football-sized anti-tank grenade from World War II.
More than 60 years after the war's end, removing unexploded bombs, grenades and artillery shells remains a full-time task for police and private companies all over Germany.
It's an occurrence so common that police explosives experts Thomas Mehlhorn and Joerg Neumann can joke about their delicate job as they sift warm pieces of shrapnel from wet dirt reeking of sulfur.
"When the weather isn't as bad as it is today, of course this job is fun," Mehlhorn said.
"It beats writing traffic tickets," said Neumann.
In Berlin, an average of 900 explosive cleanup operations take place each year. Of these, about 100 unexploded bombs are deemed too dangerous for removal -- a job for "sprengmeister," explosives experts like Mehlhorn and Neumann, who blow them up on site.
On a soggy Tuesday in August, workers from the Heinrich Heides GmbH company uncovered the anti-tank weapon during a typical day at the government-funded project to ensure the safety of public land. Often, it is construction or road workers who find the bombs.
"There are weapons of all kinds lying hidden everywhere in the ground," said Fritjof Luetzen, who heads hazardous waste and military ordnance disposal for Berlin. "Everyone who works in construction knows that if they spot something cylindrical or suspicious in the ground to drop everything and call the police."
British and American bombers dropped almost 2.7 million tons of bombs on Germany during WWII. Many went wide of their targets and did not go off, a buried legacy that affects construction, forestry, farming and fisheries.
Berlin, which was bombed heavily throughout the war and then captured by the Soviet army in a bloody battle in April and May 1945, has the most hidden bombs. The entire city is categorized as potentially dangerous.
The problem gets trickier with time as bombs corrode and destabilize. In an ongoing effort to find and remove the unpredictable relics, Luetzen's office pays private firms $2.87 million each year. The companies uncover an average of 87 tons of weaponry each year in public and private projects. In 2004 alone, workers found 160 bombs, 2,400 grenades, 1,500 explosive devices and 2,700 guns and other weapons.
It's not uncommon for entire neighborhoods and thousands of residents to be evacuated so workers can remove an old bomb. Most discoveries, like the one-ton Soviet bomb found at a construction site in Berlin's Lichterfeld suburb in July, are defused without incident.
While construction companies are not required to have their sites surveyed for bombs, most prefer to avoid accidents like one that killed three construction workers, injured eight bystanders, and tore through nearby buildings and cars in 1994.
At a company's request, the Senate Department for Urban Development hires a private firm to survey a site, a practice that experts estimate will keep weapons removal companies in business into the 22nd century.
Once they're hired, companies like Heinrich Hirdes consult the city's archive of historical documents and wartime aerial photos to determine which parts of a site are at risk.
The archive has two full-time employees who study the photos, taken by Allied planes during the bombing campaigns and acquired from the Americans for about $80 each. Researchers can tell whether certain bombs exploded by examining the smoke patterns in the photos, giving workers an idea of where to look.
Company employees know from their research that the woods they're surveying were in the path of Russian soldiers as they approached Berlin and began combing the area with powerful metal detectors. Small holes pock the ground where workers have unearthed rusty helmets, combat knives, artillery shells and bombs. Their work is entered into a computer system that records all bomb disposal work in the city.
Weapons removal projects go on across the Berlin year round, but residents aren't likely to know about them, even if they're next door.
"The key to this work is discretion," said Holger Kroenert, the Senate Department for Urban Development's weapons disposal expert. "It piques too much interest and can be dangerous."
In addition to live bombs and artillery shells, the first two hours at a sport park cleanup in Berlin's Neukoelln district, for instance, yields a dozen gas masks, combat knives, and a 1930's cigarette machine -- six cigarettes for 20 pfennig.
"Collectors would love to get their hands on the artifacts that workers dig up every day," Kroenert said.
Very few munitions are found here. The occasional spearhead is found but that is it. However, there might be some unspent munitions at the old Griesbach army base buried but that's it. This city hasn't seen a serious war sine the early 1700's at least.
During WWII, the Japanese tried to float several bombs across the Pacific Ocean using balloons. The goal was to crash them into the forest and cause huge forest fires. Most either into the ocean, or exploded without much damage over remote forest, but a few survived and crashed to the ground. One of them killed a family of six in Oregon during the 1940's. There are probably several undiscovered and unexploded Japanese bomb balloons in the deep forest of Oregon and Washington. Finding one would probably be very profitable, if you could defuse it safely. Museums and historians want to get ahold of them.
Removing WWII Bombs Steady Job in Berlin
4 September 2007
BERLIN (AP) - The earth shakes briefly in Berlin's Mittelheide city park, and a cloud of rain-soaked dirt rises over the ferns in the woods. Police have just detonated a football-sized anti-tank grenade from World War II.
More than 60 years after the war's end, removing unexploded bombs, grenades and artillery shells remains a full-time task for police and private companies all over Germany.
It's an occurrence so common that police explosives experts Thomas Mehlhorn and Joerg Neumann can joke about their delicate job as they sift warm pieces of shrapnel from wet dirt reeking of sulfur.
"When the weather isn't as bad as it is today, of course this job is fun," Mehlhorn said.
"It beats writing traffic tickets," said Neumann.
In Berlin, an average of 900 explosive cleanup operations take place each year. Of these, about 100 unexploded bombs are deemed too dangerous for removal -- a job for "sprengmeister," explosives experts like Mehlhorn and Neumann, who blow them up on site.
On a soggy Tuesday in August, workers from the Heinrich Heides GmbH company uncovered the anti-tank weapon during a typical day at the government-funded project to ensure the safety of public land. Often, it is construction or road workers who find the bombs.
"There are weapons of all kinds lying hidden everywhere in the ground," said Fritjof Luetzen, who heads hazardous waste and military ordnance disposal for Berlin. "Everyone who works in construction knows that if they spot something cylindrical or suspicious in the ground to drop everything and call the police."
British and American bombers dropped almost 2.7 million tons of bombs on Germany during WWII. Many went wide of their targets and did not go off, a buried legacy that affects construction, forestry, farming and fisheries.
Berlin, which was bombed heavily throughout the war and then captured by the Soviet army in a bloody battle in April and May 1945, has the most hidden bombs. The entire city is categorized as potentially dangerous.
The problem gets trickier with time as bombs corrode and destabilize. In an ongoing effort to find and remove the unpredictable relics, Luetzen's office pays private firms $2.87 million each year. The companies uncover an average of 87 tons of weaponry each year in public and private projects. In 2004 alone, workers found 160 bombs, 2,400 grenades, 1,500 explosive devices and 2,700 guns and other weapons.
It's not uncommon for entire neighborhoods and thousands of residents to be evacuated so workers can remove an old bomb. Most discoveries, like the one-ton Soviet bomb found at a construction site in Berlin's Lichterfeld suburb in July, are defused without incident.
While construction companies are not required to have their sites surveyed for bombs, most prefer to avoid accidents like one that killed three construction workers, injured eight bystanders, and tore through nearby buildings and cars in 1994.
A road worker was killed near Frankfurt in October 2006 when the cutting machine he was operating hit a bomb.
Bombs crop up in other countries. More than 1,000 people were evacuated from a Warsaw neighborhood in June when a 1.5 ton bomb was found on a construction site. Three Dutch fishermen were killed in 2005 when they netted what was believed to have been a bomb or mine from the war.
Britain is also working to defuse the deadly legacy of World War II, and hundreds of unexploded bombs from Hitler's blitz are thought to be buried across the country. In July, police cordoned off part of the city's busy Canary Wharf area when construction workers unearthed an unexploded bomb there.
Britain's Ministry of Defense said its bomb squads would almost certainly have a lot more work to do in the run up to the 2012 Olympics, which are being held in east London.
The area, which hosted much of the city's docks and heavy industry, saw particularly heavy bombing during the Blitz.
The Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development hires a private firm to survey a site, a practice that experts estimate will keep weapons removal companies in business into the 22nd century.
Once they're hired, companies like Heinrich Hirdes consult the city's archive of historical documents and wartime aerial photos to determine which parts of a site are at risk.
The archive has two full-time employees who study the photos, taken by Allied planes during the bombing campaigns and acquired from the Americans for about $80 each. Researchers can tell whether certain bombs exploded by examining the smoke patterns in the photos, giving workers an idea of where to look.
Company employees know from their research that the woods they're surveying were in the path of Russian soldiers as they approached Berlin and began combing the area with powerful metal detectors. Small holes pock the ground where workers have unearthed rusty helmets, combat knives, artillery shells and bombs. Their work is entered into a computer system that records all bomb disposal work in the city.
Weapons removal projects go on across the Berlin year round, but residents aren't likely to know about them, even if they're next door.
"The key to this work is discretion," said Holger Kroenert, the Senate Department for Urban Development's weapons disposal expert. "It piques too much interest and can be dangerous."
In addition to live bombs and artillery shells, the first two hours at a sport park cleanup in Berlin's Neukoelln district, for instance, yields a dozen gas masks, combat knives, and a 1930's cigarette machine -- six cigarettes for 20 pfennig.
"Collectors would love to get their hands on the artifacts that workers dig up every day," Kroenert said.
4 September 2007
BERLIN (AP) - The earth shakes briefly in Berlin's Mittelheide city park, and a cloud of rain-soaked dirt rises over the ferns in the woods. Police have just detonated a football-sized anti-tank grenade from World War II.
More than 60 years after the war's end, removing unexploded bombs, grenades and artillery shells remains a full-time task for police and private companies all over Germany.
It's an occurrence so common that police explosives experts Thomas Mehlhorn and Joerg Neumann can joke about their delicate job as they sift warm pieces of shrapnel from wet dirt reeking of sulfur.
"When the weather isn't as bad as it is today, of course this job is fun," Mehlhorn said.
"It beats writing traffic tickets," said Neumann.
In Berlin, an average of 900 explosive cleanup operations take place each year. Of these, about 100 unexploded bombs are deemed too dangerous for removal -- a job for "sprengmeister," explosives experts like Mehlhorn and Neumann, who blow them up on site.
On a soggy Tuesday in August, workers from the Heinrich Heides GmbH company uncovered the anti-tank weapon during a typical day at the government-funded project to ensure the safety of public land. Often, it is construction or road workers who find the bombs.
"There are weapons of all kinds lying hidden everywhere in the ground," said Fritjof Luetzen, who heads hazardous waste and military ordnance disposal for Berlin. "Everyone who works in construction knows that if they spot something cylindrical or suspicious in the ground to drop everything and call the police."
British and American bombers dropped almost 2.7 million tons of bombs on Germany during WWII. Many went wide of their targets and did not go off, a buried legacy that affects construction, forestry, farming and fisheries.
Berlin, which was bombed heavily throughout the war and then captured by the Soviet army in a bloody battle in April and May 1945, has the most hidden bombs. The entire city is categorized as potentially dangerous.
The problem gets trickier with time as bombs corrode and destabilize. In an ongoing effort to find and remove the unpredictable relics, Luetzen's office pays private firms $2.87 million each year. The companies uncover an average of 87 tons of weaponry each year in public and private projects. In 2004 alone, workers found 160 bombs, 2,400 grenades, 1,500 explosive devices and 2,700 guns and other weapons.
It's not uncommon for entire neighborhoods and thousands of residents to be evacuated so workers can remove an old bomb. Most discoveries, like the one-ton Soviet bomb found at a construction site in Berlin's Lichterfeld suburb in July, are defused without incident.
While construction companies are not required to have their sites surveyed for bombs, most prefer to avoid accidents like one that killed three construction workers, injured eight bystanders, and tore through nearby buildings and cars in 1994.
A road worker was killed near Frankfurt in October 2006 when the cutting machine he was operating hit a bomb.
Bombs crop up in other countries. More than 1,000 people were evacuated from a Warsaw neighborhood in June when a 1.5 ton bomb was found on a construction site. Three Dutch fishermen were killed in 2005 when they netted what was believed to have been a bomb or mine from the war.
Britain is also working to defuse the deadly legacy of World War II, and hundreds of unexploded bombs from Hitler's blitz are thought to be buried across the country. In July, police cordoned off part of the city's busy Canary Wharf area when construction workers unearthed an unexploded bomb there.
Britain's Ministry of Defense said its bomb squads would almost certainly have a lot more work to do in the run up to the 2012 Olympics, which are being held in east London.
The area, which hosted much of the city's docks and heavy industry, saw particularly heavy bombing during the Blitz.
The Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development hires a private firm to survey a site, a practice that experts estimate will keep weapons removal companies in business into the 22nd century.
Once they're hired, companies like Heinrich Hirdes consult the city's archive of historical documents and wartime aerial photos to determine which parts of a site are at risk.
The archive has two full-time employees who study the photos, taken by Allied planes during the bombing campaigns and acquired from the Americans for about $80 each. Researchers can tell whether certain bombs exploded by examining the smoke patterns in the photos, giving workers an idea of where to look.
Company employees know from their research that the woods they're surveying were in the path of Russian soldiers as they approached Berlin and began combing the area with powerful metal detectors. Small holes pock the ground where workers have unearthed rusty helmets, combat knives, artillery shells and bombs. Their work is entered into a computer system that records all bomb disposal work in the city.
Weapons removal projects go on across the Berlin year round, but residents aren't likely to know about them, even if they're next door.
"The key to this work is discretion," said Holger Kroenert, the Senate Department for Urban Development's weapons disposal expert. "It piques too much interest and can be dangerous."
In addition to live bombs and artillery shells, the first two hours at a sport park cleanup in Berlin's Neukoelln district, for instance, yields a dozen gas masks, combat knives, and a 1930's cigarette machine -- six cigarettes for 20 pfennig.
"Collectors would love to get their hands on the artifacts that workers dig up every day," Kroenert said.
peacefull area for more than one thousand years.
You get quite few in London, in fact the government still estimates there to be hundreds of unexploded WWII bombs strewn around the country.
At the end of July this year in excavations around Canary Warf revealed an unexploded V1 flying bomb.
At the end of July this year in excavations around Canary Warf revealed an unexploded V1 flying bomb.
Hong Kong just found one yesterday.
Hong Kong detonates massive World War II bomb
Thu Sep 6, 2007 1:14AM EDT
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong police evacuated hundreds of people from a densely populated area of the main island before detonating a World War II bomb discovered during construction work, local media reported.
The 400 pound (180 kg) bomb, believed to be the second largest found in Hong Kong, was dug up by construction workers at North Point in the east of Hong Kong island on Wednesday, the South China Morning Post reported.
Around 800 people were evacuated from nearby buildings before police triggered two controlled explosions to destroy the rusting, oval-shaped weapon, the Post reported.
Wartime bombs are found periodically in Hong Kong, which was occupied by Japan from 1941-1945.
Local history expert Siu Kwok-kin was quoted as saying there used to be an oil depot in North Point which Japanese bombers had targeted.
© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.
Thu Sep 6, 2007 1:14AM EDT
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong police evacuated hundreds of people from a densely populated area of the main island before detonating a World War II bomb discovered during construction work, local media reported.
The 400 pound (180 kg) bomb, believed to be the second largest found in Hong Kong, was dug up by construction workers at North Point in the east of Hong Kong island on Wednesday, the South China Morning Post reported.
Around 800 people were evacuated from nearby buildings before police triggered two controlled explosions to destroy the rusting, oval-shaped weapon, the Post reported.
Wartime bombs are found periodically in Hong Kong, which was occupied by Japan from 1941-1945.
Local history expert Siu Kwok-kin was quoted as saying there used to be an oil depot in North Point which Japanese bombers had targeted.
© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.
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