Two men in their 60s were hospitalized after a World War II artillery shell, which one of them had found in a forest and brought home, exploded. Both men had been drinking alcohol, police said, and one of them was significantly over the legal driving limit when found in the damaged apartment.
Police in Głubczyce, a community of roughly 12,000 people, received reports at about 7:30 a.m. on October 21 of a window hanging off an apartment building, as though it had been blown out from within. Officers, accompanied by bomb-sniffing dogs and counterterrorism experts, were dispatched to the scene. They evacuated residents of the building and surrounding houses to ensure their safety.
Upon entering the apartment, police found two men and a 45-year-old woman under the influence of alcohol. One of the men and the woman had blood alcohol levels of 0.25%, which is 12 times over the legal driving limit in Poland.
The two men were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said.
The owner of the apartment told police that he had found the artillery shell several years earlier while walking in the woods. During a search of the premises, officers located another unexploded device — a World War II-era mine. This device was secured and later neutralized at a military training ground.
Prosecutors have launched an investigation into the incident.
In a statement on Wednesday, police reminded the public: “If you discover an object resembling unexploded ordnance, you must not, under any circumstances, move, touch, or disarm it.” They added that large projectiles can have a range of up to several hundred yards.
“The area where it is located should be secured from access by unauthorized persons, especially children. If you are in an open space or forest, mark the area so that no one enters it and it can be easily found,” the statement concluded.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/poland-wwii-artillery-shell-explode-glubczyce-2-drunk-men-hospitalized/