WW 2 munitions

Fatal Solomons blast highlights threat in a country littered with bombs

A central Honiara residential area was rocked on Sunday by the detonation of a buried Howitzer shell which left one person dead and three others injured, two seriously.

The 101mm cannon round exploded in the Lengakiki area where the four youth members of the Kukum Seventh Day Adventist Church had been holding a fund-raising barbecue.

An elder from the church, Lloyd Tahani, said the open fire they were cooking on was directly above the shell.

"Maybe, because they had been cooking a long time, it triggered the bomb to explode," mused Tahani.