Official News - page 9

REAL LIFE NEWS: HOW NOT TO RECYCLE UNWANTED MUNITIONS

by Hazed

Recycling things after they are no longer wanted is an environmentally friendly thing to do, but you do have to be careful with some things, as a Ugandan man discovered last week when he was trying to melt something down for scrap metal. The problem was, the item he chose to recycle was an unexploded artillery shell - and it didn't remain unexploded for very long!

The acting police chief for the once war-ravaged part of Uganda that is the eastern Tesa region, reported that "We understand this man picked up a shell and tried to melt it for scrap. He put it in the fire and it exploded." Sounds like a very stupid move, but his idiocy had an effect on others, too, as the police chief said: "Two people were killed and seven others rushed to hospital critically injured. We are sealing off the area to look for more bombs."

The Teso region is full of mines and unexploded ammunition, left over from a 2003 attack which was part of a 20-year insurgency which has killed tens of thousand and displaced two million. Police have warned the locals "not to touch unfamiliar metal objects". It's a pity this guy didn't heed the warning.

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