Shell from Vietnam War era kills 2

HANOI – Two men died and a third was seriously injured in a blast as they attempted to cut open a Vietnam War-era artillery shell and extract its explosives, state media said on Sunday.

The men, aged 54 and 52, were killed immediately on Saturday as they tried to disassemble a US-made 105-millimeter (4.2-inch) shell that they found in a local field, the Thanh Nien newspaper reported.

The injured 46-year-old man needed part of his leg amputated following the explosion in central Quang Ngai province, and he remains in a critical condition, the paper said.

A study in 2009 showed that leftover ordnance had killed 10,529 people and wounded more than 12,000 in six heavily-contaminated provinces of central Vietnam since the conflict betweeen US and Vietnamese forces ended in 1975.

The government last year approved a plan to clear about 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres), or 20 percent of the nation’s land contaminated by unexploded munitions.

Vietnamese officials estimated they need more than 34 trillion dong ($1.62 billion) for the clean-up.