By Mpume Madlala and Dasen Thathiah
A rusty bomb found on Addington Beach in Durban over the weekend has been detonated and investigations are under way to find where it came from.
The 80mm shell was discovered by an elderly man walking along the beach, who notified the lifeguards. The bomb squad detonated the bomb on Monday before taking it away for further investigations, police said.
Lifeguard Mdu Mngadi, stationed at a tower about 200m away, said they were not scared because it did not even look like bomb.
| 'It did not even look like bomb' |
"It looked like a very old rock or an old object that anybody could have mistaken for anything but a bomb.
"However, when we heard that it was a bomb that was actually live and could have blown up at any time, we were concerned."
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Mngadi said: "Everyone in the area was evacuated and the bomb was detonated.
"You could hear the explosion a kilometre away."
Military historian Ken Gillings, who studied pictures of the bomb, said it appeared to be a projectile, judging by the the size and the time fuse attached to the nose.
"The shells are likely to be very degraded but still capable of detonating," he said.
Guns were once calibrated from Durban beaches, he said.
Army veteran Professor Emeritus Michael Laing said the shell could have fallen off a ship or been dumped at sea but it looked several decades old.
- This article was originally published on page 3 of Daily News on October 21, 2009
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