UFA, September 2 (RIA Novosti) – Four Russian teenagers got more than they bargained for when they found a World War II artillery shell while swimming in a pond, and took it home, only to find it was live and dangerous, local police said Monday.
Four youths from a village in the southern Urals Republic of Bashkortostan were taking a dip in a local pond when they found what was later confirmed as being a live artillery shell, a police spokesperson said.
They dragged it out of the pond, took it home, and looked it up on the internet. It was then that they understood the danger and called the police, the spokesperson said.
A team of experts was sent to investigate, and they found that the artillery shell was fused and live, police said. “The pupils took the artillery shell from the pond. The device was potentially dangerous at that moment,” the spokesman said.
The pond is a long way away from battle sites and an investigation into the discovery is underway. The bomb disposal squad later carried out a controlled explosion on the shell, police said.
In November 2012, divers found an unexploded 152mm World War II shell in the Moskva River, near the village of Metrostroi, local media reported.
