Seven people when an old WWII explosive was discovered in Bangkok. Still live after all these years, the bomb also injured almost twenty workers. Not knowing that the bomb was still active, construction workers thought that they could dismantle it, but their attempt would prove capable of unleashing the bomb’s deadly force. While it is not necessarily a common occurrence, this is not by far the first explosive from WWII which turned out to still be active.
Construction workers found the explosive while building, and had relocated it to take a blowtorch to the device and walk away with extra scrap metal. Six of the men were dead upon the explosion of the bomb. One more worker survived and was to receive transport to a medical care facility, but he did not survive the trip.
The WWII explosive in question was suspected to have been dropped by an air raid, which was common during the era. The age of the bomb was part of the reason that the construction workers knew they could sell it to the yard for a decent amount of money on the scraps. It is actually fairly common practice in the Eastern parts of the world, where such weaponry is found often.
This particular weapon, weighing five hundred pounds, was devastating to more than just the scrap workers, leaving behind an impression which struck ten feet into the ground. The yard’s warehouse was damaged, as were surrounding buildings. Workers had no idea that the weapon was still explosive, thinking it was either defunct or defective to have survived since WWII without going off.
While there is at least some vague sense of the era from which the bomb originated, less certain is the nation which dropped the bomb in Bangkok to begin with. Multiple Allied forces conducted bombing runs in the area during WWII, so the explosive could easily be either from the U.S. or the U.K. Since Bangkok was a smaller part of the Axis, they attracted a large amount of heat as the Allies tried to deprive Japan of an alliance, the CNN Edition reports.
The WWII explosive that killed seven and injured many more will not be a problem anymore, but it should hopefully provide something of a public service announcement that proper authorities should be contacted when such an artifact is found. The draw and excitement over unearthing an explosive, especially one from WWII, does not outweigh the dangers such relics pose. Similar discoveries have been made two just recently, and odds are that many more will be discovered into the distant future.