One person was reported killed and two others critically injured after a scrap bomb exploded in Uganda, authorities said on Thursday.
The deceased has been identified as Alfred Mandela, 24, a scrap dealer in Kapeeka town,” said local police spokesman Isah Semwogerere on the incident that took place in the Kapeeka trading center of the Nakaseke district.
Semwogerere noted that police were investigating where the explosive had come from.
A local police chief said the blast took place after the victim unknowingly picked up the bomb from a heap of scrap metal and began crushing it with a hammer, adding that it was still unclear where he had acquired the materials.
Eyewitness Haruna Mbidde said that although he was a distance away from the incident, he had earlier seen the victim holding an object that resembled an old rusty rocket-propelled grenad
Police identified the injured as Anthony Asiimwe and Nelson Tukwasibwe. Both were admitted to the local hospital in Nakaseke
The victim was the fifth person to die from a bomb explosion in less than a month in the country, after one person died in an explosion in a restaurant on the outskirts of the capital Kampala, another in a bus explosion, and two children in the village of Segalye village in Nakaseke when a bomb they were playing with went off
According to the villagers, many explosives had been left behind in bushes during the guerilla war of 1981-1986 in the country which brought the current government to power
Meanwhile another suspected bomb exploded and injured two children in Tirinyi town council on Wednesday, they are said to have been playing with the suspected bomb before it exploded
The incident occurred at Kujji I village, Kujji parish in Tirinyi Town Council, the two young victims were five-year-old Ivan Namwoyo and Innocent Kagoro,
The children were rushed to Tirinyi Health Centre III for treatment.
