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Why does Hong Kong have so many buried wartime bombs?

During the last legs of the Japanese occupation, US planes dumped thousands of tonnes of explosives on the city to destroy shipping and docking facilities. Those that didn’t go off are still a threat today

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The 450kg bomb was unearthed at a construction site for the Sha Tin-Central rail link in Wan Chai. Photo: Handout
After 26 hours of road closures, the evacuation of 1,300 people and a delicate operation performed by police, a 450kg (1,000 lbs) wartime bomb was on Sunday declared to no longer be a threat to the public.
But the return to normality was short-lived. On Wednesday, a second similar bomb was discovered at the same site on Harbour Road and Tonnochy Road in Wan Chai, where construction of the Sha Tin-Central rail link is going on.

By mid-afternoon, police had closed roads and ordered students and office workers in the area to go home, with bomb disposal operations expected to last well into the night.

Bomb disposal officers in Hong Kong are working to defuse the 450kg (1,000 lb) wartime explosive discovered at a Wan Chai construction site. Photo: Dickson Lee
Bomb disposal officers in Hong Kong are working to defuse the 450kg (1,000 lb) wartime explosive discovered at a Wan Chai construction site. Photo: Dickson Lee

Workers unearthed the first device – cigar-shaped, 140cm long and 45cm in diameter – on Saturday. 

The authorities sprang into action and cleared an area within a 400-metre radius of the site, piling up sandbags for extra protection. 

Hong Kong’s ticking time bomb: unexploded wartime ordnance

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