Dozens of unstable explosive
articles were safely ignited Saturday night almost 11 hours after they were
discovered at a work site in Tonkin Street in Kowloon District, Hong Kong, as
residents of two nearby buildings were evacuated for the disposal.
Heavy smokes can be seen billow out of the crater 200 meters away from the
scene at about 7:46 p.m. following a loud noise in the Tonkin Street, leaving
exclamation among the crowds watching the detonation.
Another controlled burning of the remaining explosive were carried out by the
ammunition experts 28 minutes after the detonation, which caused no casualty.
A police spokesman said a total of 16 unstable and dangerous explosive
articles were detonated during the move and other stable will be transported to
appropriate place for disposal.
Several police explosive disposal vehicles were also sent to the scene to
transport other stable explosive articles to police arsenal for further
disposal.
The police spokesman said the police experts believed the explosive articles
were left by British troops during the Second World War.
The rusted explosive articles, including grenades, cannon shells and bullets,
were first found by drainage workers about three meters underground at the work
site at Tonkin Street at about 9:00 a.m. Saturday.
Police and ammunition experts were called to the scene shortly after report
and began digging for more explosive articles several meters underground.
Ammunition experts said some of the 570 explosive articles had to be ignited
due to their dangerous and unstable conditions as they put sandbags around those
unstable explosive article after finishing the searching.
A 200-meter circle around the work site was cleared off for the detonation
while residents of two nearby buildings were also evacuated before police's
detonation moves.
One section of Tonkin Street near the work site and one exit of the subway
station exit were cordoned off for more than 10 hours to clear the way for the
disposal.
After the detonation, police began to remove the blockage at about 9:20 p.m.
around the scene about 13 hours after the seal-off and let those living in two
nearby buildings return home.
During the daytime, police had to spray water onto the rusted explosive from
time to time and put up tents over them to prevent explosives from going off
under the direct exposure of sun light.