WW II Bomb Kills 7 Thai Workers
Bangkok scrapyard employees accidentally set off a World War II bomb yesterday, resulting in the deaths of seven people.
Nineteen people were also injured, after workers tried to slice into it with a blowtorch, in an attempt to dismantle it into tinier segments.
The explosive was found at a construction site before being transferred to a scrapyard. It weighed 500 pounds and measured approximately 3 feet long. The blast made a ten foot-deep hole in the scrapyard's warehouse and dismantled nearby properties.
According to reports, Bangkok Police Commander Virasak Foythong explained that scrap workers thought they were working with a defused bomb, "The workers at the warehouse thought the bomb was no longer active so they used a metal cutter to cut into it, causing the explosion".
The origin of the weapon is unknown at the time. Police predict that it originates from the U.S. or Great Britain, as both nations attacked the city in 1944. This marks the second World War II item found in Thailand, in less than a week. Five days ago a similar mechanism was found and carefully deactivated.