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Live grenade found in factory potato cargo

By T.K. Randall
February 3, 2019 · Comment icon 7 comments

Luckily the grenade was spotted before it was processed. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 4.0 Santeri Viinamaki
The WW1-era explosive device was discovered in a harvest of potatoes sent to a Hong Kong crisp factory.
The grenade, which was found at the Calbee plant in a shipment from France, was likely to have been accidentally harvested at the same time as the potato crop.

"If it was covered in mud, the grenade was likely to have been left behind, dropped by soldiers there during the war, or left there after it was thrown," said military historian Dave Macri.

"The ditch was then filled up and used as a growing field, and the explosive was tossed into the mix of harvested potatoes... and sent to Hong Kong."
Fortunately nobody was injured and bomb disposal experts quickly neutralized the grenade by destroying it in a controlled explosion.

"The grenade was in an unstable condition because it had been previously discharged but failed to detonate," said Superintendent Wilfred Wong Ho-hon.



Source: Sky News | Comments (7)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #1 Posted by John n b 6 years ago
Bangers and mash anyone.
Comment icon #2 Posted by Habitat 6 years ago
Funny !
Comment icon #3 Posted by Cat_From_Hell 6 years ago
Them potatoes narrowly escaped becoming French fries. 
Comment icon #4 Posted by Impedancer 6 years ago
Thats one hot potatoe. They constantly dig up unexploded ordnance from both world wars nothing new. 
Comment icon #5 Posted by MWoo7 6 years ago
WHEW/PHEW!  Good thing the shipment wasn't sent to North Korea  . . .  one can only imagine the title to that story.
Comment icon #6 Posted by Habitat 6 years ago
During WW1 in France, long tunnels were sometimes dug under enemy installations for the purpose of setting off "mines" consisting of many tons of explosives. One such mine failed to detonate, when the switch was thrown. It was decided not to re-enter the tunnel, out of fear that it might trigger the charge and kill  the "sappers". So it remained in place, till a severe thunderstorm in the 1950's was enough to set it off, killing a number of cattle, but no people. Dare I say, a "blast from the past" ?
Comment icon #7 Posted by John n b 6 years ago
I may be wrong, but I'm sure there's still another tunnel thats packed with explosives that didn't detonate.


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