Quang Tri handles over 400 explosives
After finding unexploded bombs when he was digging the foundations of his new house, Nguyen Quoc Duy in Quang Tri province's Dong Ha city notified local authorities for help.
Right after receiving information from the household, the Military Command’s engineer force under the Quang Tri provincial Military Command conducted inspections at the site.
The team found about 400 exposives, including mortar rounds, shells, M83 and M49 bombs, grenades, and ammunition of various kinds. The fuses of most of the explosives remained intact when found.
The exposives then have been deactivated as of March 10.
Incomplete statistics show the number of bombs left after the war in Vietnam is about 800,000 tonnes, with the total area suspected of bomb and mine pollution about 6.13 million hectares, accounting for 18.71 per cent of the country.
A survey in 2017 by the Ministry of National Defence showed that nearly 82 percent of the area of Quang Tri, a fierce battlefield during the Vietnam war, was contaminated with UXOs.
Nearly 8,540 local residents have been killed or injured by UXOs since 1975. In the mountainous Huong Hoa – a heavily UXO-polluted district, more than 1,150 people have been killed or injured in UXO accidents since 1975 – when the war ended.
