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Hong Kong war relic hunter finds Japanese grenades in hills near Parkview

Bomb disposal officers destroy devices; nearby celebrity wedding at HK Parkview not disturbed

A war relic hunter found four Japanese grenades in hills above Happy Valley - the scene of intense fighting during the Japanese invasion in 1941.

The find was made by an expatriate called David, who was hiking along the Wilson Trail at noon yesterday. With the help of a metal detector, he found four grenades buried in earth 50 metres from the Hong Kong Parkview residential complex. He believed they were type 91 hand grenades left there in 1941.

Police said each grenade was four inches long with a diameter of two inches.

Bomb disposal teams arrived at 1pm and inspected the explosive devices.

To ensure public safety, police closed off an area 500 metres across, while firefighters stood by.

The grenades, wrapped in sandbags, were detonated at around 3pm. The shell cases were not taken away for further inspection.

Canto-pop singer and songwriter Ivana Wong and figurine designer Eric So were holding a star-studded wedding ceremony at Hong Kong Parkview at the time, but the event was not disrupted. A-list guests included Canto-pop queens Joey Yung and Miriam Yeung and award winning actress Sandra Ng Kwan-yu.

A police source said it was not the first time David and his friends had recovered war relics on Hong Kong Island.

In January, he discovered four wartime Japanese hand grenades and one mortar on a slope along Black's Link in Aberdeen Country Park. The weapons were found with 54 rounds of ammunition. Bomb disposal officers carried out a controlled explosion.

In February last year, construction workers discovered a 900kg US wartime device at a site in Happy Valley, sparking the evacuation of more than 2,000 people from nearby offices, flats and a hotel.

A 250kg wartime bomb was found by a hiker near Tai Tam Tuk Reservoir in March 2013. Since it was not easy for bomb disposal officers to remove the device, a helicopter had to be brought in to transport it to their base in Jardine's Lookout.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: War relic hunter finds Japanese grenades in hills
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