The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Ugandan demonstrates how not to recycle munitions

Hey, let's melt this shell down for scrap...

Free whitepaper – Dell/EMC CX4 and Dell PowerEdge blades

An attempt last Saturday by a Uganda man to recycle an unexploded artillery shell ended rather badly when he ill-advisedly decided to melt it down for scrap, Reuters reports.

Francis Agwoka, acting police chief for the "once war-ravaged eastern Teso region", pretty well summed it up when he told the news agency: "We understand this man picked up a shell and tried to melt it for scrap. He put it in the fire and it exploded."

Agwoka added: "Two people were killed and seven others rushed to hospital critically injured. We are sealing off the area to look for more bombs."

The Teso region is awash with "mines and abandoned ammunition", Reuters notes, following a 2003 attack on the area by the Lord's Resistance Army rebels as part of a 20-year insurgency which has" killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly two million". Accordingly, and following the recycling mishap, police have warned locals "not to touch unfamiliar metal objects". ®

Bootnote

Thanks to David Hough for the explosive tip-off. As he says: "Don't try this at home."

Free whitepaper – Dell IT infrastructure services brochure

Don’t Miss

DustbinDirty, dirty PCs: The X-rated picture guide

Ventblockers Horror beyond human imagination

SC09Top 500 supers - rise of the Linux quad-cores

SC09 Jaguar munches Roadrunner

Ubuntu teaser Early adopters bloodied by Ubuntu's Karmic Koala

Smooth Windows upgrade it ain't

Sign up, sign up for The Register IT security newsletter

Narrowcasting for the email classes