Villagers in fear of bomb

VILLAGERS in the Wampar local level government of Huon Gulf in Morobe are living in fear after they discovered an unexploded World War II bomb buried in the ground.
The bomb was discovered by a local fisherman on Jan 28 at Phyang village.
Villagers alerted the provincial disaster office which then notified the Defence Force in Lae.
Capt Ivor Natekeo, from Igam Barracks, said a bomb exploded in the area in 2017.
No one was injured although the effect could be felt from up to two kilometres away.
“We have not identified whether it was a WWII bomb from the allied forces,” he said.
“It’s rusty and in a very unstable state. It’s dangerous if you start tapping it or disturbing the state it’s in.”
Capt Natekeo said the engineering battalion had disposed of such bombs before.
“Usually, we take them and dispose them in the ocean,” he said.
“But for this particular case, we have to do a blow-in-place-exercise because the terrain does not allow us to move it. We have to do awareness first and educate the people and have them to move outside the radius of 5km.”