A lake in eastern France, dried out due to successive summer heat waves, revealed a World War II phosphorus grenade that had been activated by the heat, authorities said today.
Firefighters intervened on Tuesday in the town of Ramonchamp, in the Vosges (east), after the discovery of a “metal cylindrical object” that released “white and irritating smoke,” the Gendarmerie told the news agency France-Presse (AFP).
The device is an M15-type phosphorus grenade, submerged in a lake and exposed to air due to the drought. EOD specialists, upon observing the smoke, intervened to destroy the ordnance at a local quarry.
Between August 10 and 13, authorities recorded three interventions in the Vosges due to the discovery of military ordnance that emerged from dry water bodies or whose level had drastically dropped.
The Gendarmerie reminds that, in case of discovery of this type, you should not “touch the object” and the town hall or the police should be notified, after a resident had brought to them in his car a projectile he had found.
In Germany, undetonated World War II ammunition is complicating the work of firefighters who are fighting a forest fire in Hurtgenwald, in the west of the country near the Belgian border.
During the night, there were “several explosions,” the mayor of the Duren district told reporters, adding that there was still “a relatively large amount of ammunition debris on the ground.”
