South African scrap metal hobbyist discovers mortar bomb

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South African police destroyed a mortar bomb unknowingly picked up by a scrap metal collector who planned to sell it, a spokesman said Friday.

Officers rushed to the scene in Durban after a security guard spotted the explosive among a trolley of scrap metal being pushed by the man.

“It was identified to have been a very old mortar bomb,” police spokesman Colonel Vincent Mdunge told AFP.

The bomb did not have a detonator and posed no danger. But it was destroyed by the bomb disposal unit after being confiscated, said Mdunge

The collector had no idea of what was in his trolley.

“He was going to take it to a scrap metal shop to resell it,” said Mdunge.

The item was picked up on an open patch of ground on Thursday and had perhaps surfaced due to natural soil erosion.

Its origins are unknown.