Police in Hengyang City, central China’s Hunan Province, recently handled another issue of a heavy bomb left by Japanese troops during the World War II.

Citizens in the city have discovered over 300 bombs while digging wells, cleaning riverbed, or undergoing other constructions since 1949.

A farmer at Dongshan Village of Heping Township, Zhuhui District, found a bomb deeply imbedded in earth as he dug a well earlier this month. Local police immediately put the spot under appropriate protection after receiving report.

The police consulted relevant experts and worked out a plan to handle the issue with the least risk. They invited bomb removers to lift the bomb from the four-meter-deep well and take it to a warehouse for dangerous and explosive materials. 

The bomb is 1.1 meter in length and 0.6 meter in perimeter, weighing 70 kilograms.

According to experts, it is a powerful bomb with an explosive radium of 10 meters. Its detonating fuse well preserved, the bomb can blast at any time in carelessness.

With a history of over 2,000 years, the ancient city of Hengyang used to be a military fortress and an important transportation hub on the road from China’s north to south, and that between the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi. Once known as “Little Shanghai,” Hengyang was one of the important targets of the Japanese attacks in World War II. Tens of thousands of bombs, including fire and gas bombs, were dropped since September 1937, and again, the city was razed to the ground in the 47-day battle fought in June 1944.

Experts say the bombs left by the Japanese troops still threat the safety of the city nowadays.

(China.org.cn by Unisumoon, October 30, 2003)