Explosion in Vietnam kills two, injures six people

HANOI: A big explosion occurred in Vietnam's northern Bac Ninh province early Wednesday morning, killing two kids and injuring six people, China's Xinhua news agency reported provincial authorities as saying.
The accident at a house of a scrap collector in Van Mon commune, Yen Phong district also destroyed two houses and damaged many others within a 500m radius from the explosion.
At the scene, some bullets have been found.
Many households in Van Mon specialise in collecting and processing scraps which sometimes include unexploded ordnance such as mortar shells, mines, and bullets.
During the 1965-1975 Vietnam War, the US Armed Forces deployed more than 15 million tonnes of bombs, mines, artillery shells and other ordnance in Vietnam, in which 10% did not detonate as designed, according to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund of the United States.
Vietnamese scrap collectors often saw unexploded ordnance for metal and explosive, while small children play ammunitions by breaking them, resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries annually. — Bernama