Hanoi, Vietnam - Six children were killed and two others seriously wounded when a Vietnam War-era mortar shell exploded while they were playing with it, police said on Wednesday.
Five of the children, ages 10 to 11, were killed instantly on Monday, said Luong Van Ngan, police chief of the Phu Cat district in the south-central province of Binh Dinh.
Another died in the provincial general hospital Tuesday, and the wounded were listed in critical condition.
Ngan said in a telephone interview that the kids were playing soccer when they found the mortar shell near a rice field. It apparently had been dredged up from a canal during upgrade work on Highway One but was not immediately seen in the mud. Recent rains had exposed it.
Ngan said fierce fighting took place in Phu Cat district during the war.
Unexploded bombs, land mines and artillery shells killed 38 248 people in the first 23 years after the end of the war that ended April 30, 1975, according to statistics from the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs. Another 60 064 people were injured through April 1998.
The ministry estimated 300 000 tons of unexploded ordnance remain - two percent of the 15 million tons of bombs, land mines and shells fired by United States forces during the war.
Newspapers carry reports of casualties from war leftovers virtually every week as many poor villagers risk their lives to scavenge scrap iron for a little cash. - Sapa-AP