Vietnam War grenade explodes, kills 2 boys, injures 6

Two 11-year-old pupils in Dak Nong Province died and six others were severely injured after they played with an explosive device, allegedly a M79 grenade left from the Vietnam War.

The victims toyed with the grenade, and one of them was even heard saying “Let it explode!” as another threw it onto the ground for fun, causing the explosion.

The incident occurred at 1:30 pm yesterday when locals heard a loud explosion in the Nui Lua Firing Range, an area used by the local army for shooting practice, in Thuan An Commune, Dak Mil District.

They rushed to the scene and found eight students severely injured. One of the victims, Chau Ngoc Trung, died on the way to the Dak Lak Province General Hospital while the other seven were hospitalized in critical condition.

Yesterday afternoon, another student, Tran Hoai Giang, died at the hospital, doctors said. 

All the victims are 11 years old and are grade-5 students of Nguyen Van Troi Primary School in Dak Mil district.
When contacted by Tuoi Tre, Nguyen Dac Hoa, one of the students suffering less dangerous injuries, said he and his seven classmates arrived at the shooting range, an area with many unexploded ordinances, before school time on Tuesday afternoon.

There they found a grenade with strange shape, so all of them started playing with it by juggling it, Hoa recalled.

One of the students later said in jest, “Let it explode!” and another who was holding the explosive immediately threw it onto the ground and a loud explosion was heard, Hoa recalled.

Hoa did not remember anything after that.

According to locals, Thuan An commune has a lot of unexploded ordinances (UXOs) left from the Vietnam War, since it was a battlefield during the war.

Nguyen Dac Thanh, Hoa’s father, said he had found many grenades and fragmentation bombs when he reclaimed land for cultivation in the area.

Major Trinh Cong He, from the Sapper Division of the Dak Nong Province Military Headquarters, said, “Based on the injures and traces left, the explosive could likely be a M79 grenade left by US troops in the area during the war”.

UXO is a big problem in Vietnam after the war ended in April 1975, with more than 20 percent of the land in the country still contaminated with bombs and mines and over 100,000 people, mostly children and breadwinners, have been killed or injured, said Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan at a UXO-related meeting on April 1.