Pretoria - A scrapyard owner was “blown to shreds” on Monday after attempting to use a grinder to strip open an explosive device dating back to World War II.
Residents of Pretoria West woke up to a blast when a cannon projectile detonated at about 8am at a scrapyard, killing one person and injuring two, who both worked at the scrapyard.
One of them was said to be in a critical condition in hospital.
Witnesses said pieces of the man were scattered across the street, with one resident claiming that he saw the dead man’s nose lying on the pavement.
Lekhu Tshaka, who lives directly opposite the scrapyard, said he was walking out of his yard with his girlfriend when they suddenly heard a loud explosion.
They could not determine where it came from because they decided to lie on the ground in case it was a gunshot, he said.
“When we got up we saw pieces of flesh all over. The guy’s nose was on the pavement while pieces of his skull were on the streets,” he said.
He saw another man running out of the yard and inspecting himself to check if he was fine.
Former community policing forum member Eric Cordier, who was one of the first people on the scene, said he first heard an explosion. But when he went outside he saw a dust storm. “At first I thought it was a car accident, but I realised it wasn’t,” Cordier said. He then went to the source of the dust and found a man “blown to pieces”.
“There was flesh everywhere, his face was blown away. The other guy who was working there was pushed very far from the explosion by the force. He is is in hospital,” said Cordier.
It is alleged that two men had brought the explosives to the scrapyard.
Police said the man who was killed was using a grinder, trying to cut the shell open.
The area was cordoned off for a radius of about 50m from the informal scrapyard in Rebecca Street, with at least 50 police, emergency personnel, and explosive experts on the scene.
A black bag, believed to have been left on the scene by the pair who sold the explosives to the dealer, could be seen on the corner of Rebecca and Servaas streets.
Police later confirmed that the bag contained five shells.
Police spokesman Captain Tsekiso Mofokeng said police found 15 more shells at the scene – six of which were still active.
A scrap metal dealer, who asked not be named, said the pair had earlier asked one of her employees for a dustbin for them to put the explosives in but the employee refused.
“They were also trying to sell those bombs to us but we didn’t want them, because we don’t buy things we don’t know,” she said.
Mofokeng said they were working with the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) “to determine the origin of the explosives”.
He said they believed the explosives came from Atteridgeville and surrounding areas.
“We are not ruling out the possibility of finding more explosives and we suspect there might be a place where they are being stashed,” Mofokeng said.
No arrests have been made and investigations are ongoing. The police bomb disposal unit removed 15 World War II explosive devices from the scrapyard, police said.
The Pretoria News failed to get a comment from the SANDF.
Pretoria News