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| Soldiers from the Military High Command of Điện Biên Province carefully pull the bomb uphill before deactivating it. — VNA/VNS Photo |
Viet Nam News
ĐIỆN BIÊN — The Điện Biên City Military Command and sappers from the Military High Command of this northern province safely detonated a bomb dropped by US troops during the Việt Nam war.
The 150-kg bomb was discovered by a construction unit last week at the foot of a hill between two residential areas in Him Lam Ward, Điện Biên Phủ City. It was deactivated on Wednesday.
This is the second bomb to be found in the province this year. On March 2, a bomb weighing over 300kg, which was discovered by a local man at the foot of a hill near a residential area in Him Lam Ward, was deactivated.
According to the Technology Centre for Bomb and Mine Disposal under the Engineering Command, up to 7,645 of the 8,686 communes in Việt Nam’s 63 provinces and cities are polluted with unexploded ordnance (UXOs).
The US army used more than 15 million tonnes of bombs and mines in the war in Việt Nam, four times the amount used in World War II. As a result, Việt Nam has been listed among the countries most contaminated with UXOs.
According to the National Steering Committee for Recovery over Postwar Bomb and Landmine Impacts, some 800,000 tonnes of UXOs are scattered across 6.6 million hectares, or 20.12 per cent of the country’s land, mainly in the central region, putting people in danger everyday.
Việt Nam has cleared hundreds of thousands of hectares of UXOs to date. — VNS
