It looked like a normal children's playground in England. But underneath? 175 WWII bombs
It looked like a normal children's playground in England. But underneath? 175 WWII bombs The chance discovery occurred in mid-January as officials began construction on a playground in Wooler, a small town in Northumberland, England near the Scotland border.
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D-Day veterans receive hero's welcome in France
Dozens of World War II veterans were honored during a ceremony in France to mark 80 years since D-Day.
For years, scores of unexploded practice bombs dating to World War II lay buried beneath the feet of playing children in northern England.
What's more, the 175 or so bombs likely would have remained undisturbed for years to come were it not for a project to renovate the playground where they were recently unearthed.
The chance discovery occurred in mid-January as officials began construction on a playground in Wooler, a small town in Northumberland, England near the Scotland border. A suspicious package found Jan. 14 near the site turned out to be a nonexplosive practice bomb used for training, prompting further investigation – and more bombs to be uncovered, according to multiple reports.
Once a second practice bomb was found the next day, the Wooler Parish Council learned that a full survey of the area would be required before park renovations could continue, both the New York Times and BBC reported. Describing the discoveries as 'unexpected,' the council said in a news release Friday that private bomb disposal company Brimstone Site Investigations were called in to spend two days scouring the site for more explosives.
But local officials weren't quite prepared for just how many of the unexploded ordinances were underneath the property.
During a two-day survey, contractors unearthed another 155 practice bombs in a 21-square-foot area, officials said. Several reports indicate that the total of uncovered bombs now stands at 175 or more.
'It soon became apparent that the scale of the problem was far greater than anyone had anticipated,' the parish council wrote.
About 175 practice bombs unearthed beneath UK playground
The bombs were first discovered when a construction project got underway to renovate the Scotts Park playground in Wooler.
The first two bombs found were removed by the British Army, the British Ministry of Defense said in a statement to the Times and Washington Post. A full survey of the area was then ordered to clear the park of any more bombs, according to local officials.
On the first day of the survey, Jan. 23, Brimstone identified 65 more practice bombs, each weighing 10 pounds, as well as smoke cartridges. The next day, the contractors found another 90 bombs, all of which were safely removed and stored in a designated storage area, the council said.
Though the bombs are nonexplosive and used for training, 'they do still carry a charge' and, due to how many there are, need to be removed by specialists, the parish council's release said.
"These have been found with their fuse and contents still intact," officials wrote, "and the detonator burster and smoke filling in particular can still be potentially hazardous.'
Mark Mather, a county councilor in Wooler, told multiple outlets, including the Times and BBC, that only about a third of the park had been cleared and officials were concerned that more bombs may remain.
'We could still find another pit with more bombs,' Mather told the British broadcaster. "It's quite something to think the children have been playing on bombs."
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Wooler may have been training center during WWII
It's believed that Wooler had been a training center for the Home Guard, a volunteer citizen militia considered the last line of defense against the Germans during World War II, Mather told several outlets.
'After the war, it looked like they just buried all the ordnance in one of the pits,' Maher told BBC.
A sign of World War II's lasting legacy, it's not uncommon to stumble upon unexploded ordnance in Britain – remnants of a conflict that ended nearly 80 years ago.
In February 2024, a 1,100-pound World War II bomb was discovered in the garden of a residential property in Plymouth, a city in southwestern England, prompting what the government described as 'one of the largest evacuation operations" since WWII came to an end in Europe. Authorities transported the device through the city before detonating it at sea.
Japan wasn't so lucky in October when an unexploded bomb dropped during World War II and subsequently buried at an airport detonated. The explosion damaged a runway and canceled more than 80 flights, but no one was injured.
Playground construction to resume once site deemed safe
Wooler Parish Council, with funding from the Northumberland County Council, plans to contract Brimstone to continue the survey for another two weeks.
Officials hope that the site will be cleared by then, allowing construction on the playground to resume in April once the site is deemed safe.
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com
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