Johannesburg - The police bomb disposal unit removed 15 World War II explosive devices from a scrap yard in Pretoria West after one killed a man there on Monday morning, Gauteng police said.
Of the 15 old military incendiary devices found at the site in Rebecca Street, six were found to be live, Captain Tsekiso Mofokeng said.
Between 8am and 9am on Monday, a man was killed and another was seriously injured when one of the devices exploded at the scrap yard.
It was not immediately clear whether the men were employed at the scrap yard. Mofokeng said that preliminary investigations indicated the explosion was an accident.
“At the moment we have opened an inquest.”
It was not known how the antiquated military ordnance came to be at the scrap yard.
“We are appealing to the community to tell us where they came from,” Mofokeng said.
Streets around the scrap yard had been closed off, but were reopened by early afternoon.
Sapa