Army blows up kids’ show and tell item
A World War II-era bomb discovered by children has been detonated by the Defence Force in Paraparaumu.
Children found the 9cm high explosive anti-aircraft shell during the school holidays three weeks ago in the Belmont Regional Park.
Police said the children had been handling the shell and planned to take it to their school’s show and tell.
“The kids took it home to their grandparents’ house, and after googling the item they thought it was safe to keep and clean it up to take to school for show and tell,” Constable Rob Eastham said.
“[Saturday] night the children returned to their home in Awatea Ave in Paraparaumu with the artillery round in the car.”
An adult saw the children playing with the undetonated round and, concerned, moved it to the backyard before calling police.
Police visited the children’s house, evacuated three nearby properties and put a cordon in place.
The New Zealand Defence Force Bomb Disposal Unit inspected the projectile and confirmed it was potentially still live and should be detonated in a controlled explosion.
The unit carefully transferred the projectile to a safe location at Higgins Quarry in Paraparaumu yesterday.
It was buried under about a metre of gravel and detonated by remote from 300m away. A quarry employee said the bang, disappointingly, was not that loud.
The army used the Belmont Hills area for the firing and disposal of similar armaments in the 1940s but it was decommissioned in 1972.
Eastham said it was a reminder that anyone who found such an item should contact police straight away.