The 860kg shell is going to be defused in one day by a MAG team. (Source: tinmoi.vn) Quang Tri (VNA) - The military command of central Quang Tri province, in co-operation with the Mine Advisory Group (MAG), has defused a large artillery shell in Gio Linh district.
The shell, which was found in early this week buried 3m underground by a farmer while digging a hole in his garden for planting cassava, weighed 860kg and was 1.3m long with a diameter of 40cm.
The live shell, suspected to be a 16in HC-MK13, was shot from a United States warship during the war in Vietnam.
More than 800,000 tonnes of unexploded bombs and mines left from wartime are buried in 21 percent of the country, mainly in the central provinces of Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue and Quang Ngai.
Wartime bombs and mines have killed about 42,130 and injured another 62,160, according to the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.
Quang Tri is one of the provinces most suffered in the war with 83 percent of its total land containing unexploded ordnances. Since 1975, 8,500 local people have fallen victim to unexploded bombs and mines, 31 percent of whom are children.-VNA
