At least three wartime bombs were found yesterday by two amateur archaeologists on a hiking trail in Wong Nai Chung a short distance from a luxury residential complex.
'At about 5pm, a man called our emergency unit and said he found a suspect object at Sir Cecil's Ride,' a police spokesman said. Officers arrived to find a bomb-like object on a slope only 300 metres away from Parkview - a large residential complex. Firemen and bomb-disposal officers were sent for immediately.
'We are trying to find out how many of these objects there are and we might defuse them at the spot later,' the spokesman said. He did not disclose the number of bombs, but a police source said three had been found. The area was cordoned off last night awaiting a decision on the bombs' disposal.
The bombs were found by a 43-year-old man with the surname Brown hiking on Wong Nai Chung Gap Trail with a 34-year-old Japanese woman surnamed Maiko.
Mr Brown, who works in the banking sector, said archaeology was his hobby and he often went hiking with a metal detector.
As he walked the trail yesterday with Ms Maiko, also an amateur archaeologist, tracing the battle for Wong Nai Chung Gap on December 19, 1941, one of the bloodiest in the struggle for Hong Kong, his detector was activated. They first unearthed a kettle, then found what looked like a rusty mortar shell and called police. Police said a nearby sign near where the bombs were found marked the spot as a wartime arsenal.
