World War II grenades, mortar found on Hong Kong hillside, forcing police to close section of popular hiking trail
- Military enthusiast discovers explosives off Wilson Trail near Stanley
- Bomb disposal officers detonated the items at the scene at about 5pm
Four grenades and a mortar from the second world war were unearthed near a popular Hong Kong hiking trail on Sunday afternoon.
The explosives were found by a 28-year-old military enthusiast with a metal detector at about 12.50pm on a slope close to the Wilson Trail in the Tai Tam Country Park near Stanley.
The man was one of several people who spend their weekends scouring the city’s second world war battle sites for items that may have been left behind.
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Officers from the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bureau examined the weapons at the spot about 50 metres from Stanley Gap Road. The entrance to the Wilson Trail on that road was blocked off while the operation took place.
The items included a 20-cm mortar with a diameter of 6cm, and four grenades, each measuring 15cm.
At about 5pm, bomb specialists detonated the items at the scene, with a loud “bang” heard. Shortly before that, dozens of hikers were evacuated.
Buried wartime explosives have occasionally been found in the southern part of Hong Kong Island.
A British-made mortar was dug up by a gardener at a house on Big Wave Bay Road in Shek O early this month, and in January, a hiker spotted a Japanese mortar and five bullets at a creek near Hong Kong Park View residential estate.
In March last year, the bomb disposal squad also detonated five grenades thought to date from the second world war after a military enthusiast found the explosives in the same area as this latest discovery.
Bomb disposal team detonates World War II grenades found near hiking hotspot
Historians believed four of the grenades were Japanese, while another was made by the British army, and they related to the Battle of Hong Kong in 1941.
Stanley Peninsula, which is south of the tough hiking area known as The Twins, was a stronghold of the Hong Kong garrison – made up of British, Indian and Canadian units – during the defence against the 1941 invasion.
Hong Kong fell to the Japanese in December 1941, before the British regained control less than four years later.
