Illustrative photo (Source:Internet)Bac Lieu (VNA) – Army engineers in the Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu on March 30 successfully detonated a 340-kilogramme bomb discovered in An Phuc commune, Dong Hai district.
The defused bomb is the MK117 type, an air-dropped general-purpose bomb used by the US military forces in Vietnam War. The bomb is believed to have an effective casualty radius of about one kilometre.
Since the beginning of the year, five bombs have been unearthed and defused in the locality.
The US army used more than 15 million tonnes of bombs and mines during the war in Vietnam , four times the amount used in World War II. As a result, Vietnam has been listed among the countries most contaminated with unexploded ordnances (UXOs).
According to the State Steering Committee for the national action programme on settling post-war bomb and landmine impacts, about 800,000 tonnes of UXOs are scattered across 6.6 million hectares or 20.12 percent of Vietnam ’s land, mainly in the central region.
Preliminary statistics show that UXOs have claimed more than 42,000 lives and left about 62,000 injured - mostly rural people and children - in Vietnam over the last four decades.-VNA
