Military sappers in the Tay Giang District of Quang Nam Province yesterday found and defused three bombs left from the wars in the communes of Lang, A Nong and Bhalee.

Sappers remove a bomb in Tay Giang district in Quang Nam Province. Three bombs, weighing 200kg each, were found in a forest bordered by three communues in the district.

An official from the district’s People’s Committee told the Viet Nam News that local residents found 200kg of bombs in a forest after the heavy rains that drenched the region in recent months.

The sappers said the bombs were likely dropped by the US Air Force during the American war in Viet Nam in the late 1960s.

Quang Nam is one of the provinces with the largest number of unexploded ordnances (UXO) of the war. 

The total contaminated area is over 1 million hectares, but only 5 per cent have been cleared of landmines and UXO.

In 2013, the Danish Demining Group (DDG) launched an education project for the prevention of accidents related to landmines and unexploded ordnances (UXO) in central Quang Nam Province’s Duy Xuyen District.

According to the latest report, more than 12,000 deaths and almost 19,000 injuries have occurred since the American war ended in 1975 as a result of the left over explosives. 

VNS