Construction workers renovating a school playground in France over the summer vacation made a discovery that made their blood run cold.
Beneath the school's sandbox lay more than 200 mortar shells, grenades, and nearly a ton of machine gun cartridges from the Second World War.
The ammunition was uncovered on July 11 in the courtyard of the Jules-Verne Elementary School in the town of Tain-l'Hermitage in Drôme in southeastern France. One of the workers discovered a metal box while digging under the school courtyard and decided to investigate.
"We continued to scratch around with the shovel and we saw that there were lots of bullets," another builder told local news outlet France 3. "I informed the works manager who notified the gendarmerie (armed forces). The next day, we came back and we found a grenade."
At first, mine clearance experts did not intervene. But, as they continued to dig, the construction crew began to find mortar shells "in substantial quantities."
At this point, construction was suspended, and the site was evacuated. Mine clearance experts from Lyon's Civil Security arrived at the scene and safely removed the ammunition, transporting them back to Lyon where they were destroyed.
"They came to the site for two days," the town's mayor, Xavier Angeli, told France 3. "And there, a real arsenal of more than a ton was brought to light: ammunition, mortar shells, grenades, a large machine gun."
The city's director of technical services, Christèle Le Boulanger, said that the discovery had left many town officials in a cold sweat: "You realize it's right below the school sandbox, where hundreds of children from the Jules-Verne primary school played, above war munitions, without knowing it, for several decades."
It is still unclear how the weapons ended up under the school playground. However, this is not the first time Second World War weapons were found under school property.
In February 2022, a 275-pound bomb of U.S. origin was found by construction workers on the site of the Notre-Dame-de-la-Providence School in Avranches, according to French outlet L'Edition du Soir.
"We find them every week," Yannick Le Sausse, second in command of the departmental gendarmerie group, told the outlet. "These bombs were often armed in flight and released without exploding."
The town's mayor decided to keep the recent discovery under wraps until the day before the children were due to return to school on September 5. While some parents have been alarmed by the discovery, the mayor insists that the site is totally safe.
"The place has been raked and there are no more problems," Angeli said.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Pandora Dewan is a Senior Science Reporter at Newsweek based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on science, health ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
