A child who was playing on the banks of the Ill river in Horbourg-Wihr (Haut-Rhin) found and handled a WWII rifle grenade, still active but still pinned and which did not explode, the report said. Monday July 20 deminers.
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The child found this rusty metal object on the bank on Saturday afternoon and brought it back to his mother. She immediately asked her to put it down as a precaution, and she warned the mayor, referring to " a found object ". But in view of the photo of the object received on Sunday morning, and by going there, the municipal services became aware of the danger that this grenade could represent. They called in deminers from the inter-departmental civil security service in Colmar.
500 demining requests per year in Haut-Rhin
“ We came close to the drama, this child was very lucky! ", Underlined Dominique Berlet, one of the two deminers intervened on the machine. “ This is an American ATM 9 type rifle grenade, therefore specially designed to be fired from a rifle. In this case, we can even see that it is an anti-tank grenade, with a small shaped charge, which very probably dates from the battles of the Pocket of Colmar, at the beginning of 1945. It does not. had not been used and was forgotten there. It has undoubtedly been in the water for years, but fortunately still had its safety pin, which I was only able to observe when there , ”he added.
" It's a chance that the pin has always been in place, otherwise the handling of such a machine is very dangerous. If only if we drop it, it can explode, ”he warned. The authorities insist on the importance of never moving or handling any suspicious object and immediately notifying the police or the town hall.
Colmar's demining service, which has 11 deminers, is called upon to intervene very regularly, with 500 requests per year in the Haut-Rhin alone. It is mainly ammunition dating from the Second World War, on the plain of Alsace and in the surroundings of Colmar. On the other hand, there are more explosives dating from the First World War in the Vosges, on the ridges or in the Sundgau, in the south of Alsace.
