Workers unearthed a WWII-era unexploded bomb with a fuse intact during a maintenance work on a drainpipe on prefectural road 79 in Ohkawa, Ishigaki City.

A crew from the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Ordnance Disposal Unit identified the ordnance as a British-made 250kg aerial bomb that likely had been dropped sometime during the WWII.

According to Ishigaki City Disaster Prevention and Crisis Management Department, one of the workers found the bomb at the depth of about 2.5 meters when he was digging the ground with a power shovel. The bomb was sliding down with the sand when he noticed it.

The JGSDF disposal unit lifted the bomb on the sidewalk, and secured it. The bomb is supposed to be kept at the discovery site until it’s disposal. The date of the disposal has not yet been determined.

The site is a city area where residents and tourists come and go. Local residents said they were scared. A woman who runs a cosmetics shop near the site said, “I was very surprised. All of us could have been injured if the bomb exploded.”

An unexploded bomb was found near the site once before. An official at the Disaster Prevention and Crisis Management Department said, “Many locals and tourists usually move at the site. We are glad nothing happened. We would like the JGSDF disposal unit to remove the bomb as soon as possible.”

In January 2009, a 250kg unexploded bomb exploded at Kohagura, Itoman City during an excavation work with a power shovel. Two men were injured in the explosion, one of them seriously.

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