Two pyrotechnicians, one British and one Australian, were killed when World War II-era munitions exploded as they tried to defuse them in the Solomon Islands, authorities said today.
The accident unfolded yesterday Sunday in Honiara, the capital of this Pacific Ocean archipelago. The two experts died after being taken to a hospital, the police said.
The Norwegian People's Aid (NPA), which maintains a database of unexploded ordnance in the Solomon Islands, has confirmed that two of its workers have been killed:Britain's Steven "Luke" Atkinson and Australia's Trent Lee.
The NPA clarified that its activity in the Solomon Islands has been temporarily suspended for the duration of the investigation into the accident.
The archipelago was the scene of heavy fighting between the Allied forces and Imperial Japanese troops during World War II. When the fighting ended, large quantities of shells, land mines and other munitions were abandoned there.
The NPA is working with the Solomon Islands Police to study the extent of the problem and implement a nationwide program to collect and destroy these munitions. The organization explains that the military equipment raises safety issues and pollutes the environment with the chemical products it contains.
Military munitions "continue to kill or seriously injure the local population", while in some cases "they are used for destructive fishing practices", the NGO explains.
"Explosives are often found on construction sites during the construction of cities, on coral reefs, in farms, in forests and in gardens where children find them and sometimes play with them," he adds.
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