BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya-A 42-year-old village councilor died instantly while his 33-year-old worker is in a critical condition after an old vintage bomb exploded when they cut it with a saw in Almaguer South, Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya at 11:40 in the morning on Saturday, a belated Nueva Vizcaya police report said on Monday (Feb. 10).
Police Major Nova Lyn Aggasid, Nueva Vizcaya police spokesperson, said on Monday that the 42-year-old village councilor (name hidden due to data privacy) in Baan, Aritao town, died instantly while his 33-year-old worker from Nueva Ecija is in a critical condition due to his severed legs and shrapnel wounds at the Region II Trauma and Medical Center in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya.
The councilor worked as a house contractor and unearthed the vintage bomb at their project site in San Antonio North village in Bambang town.
Curious of the content of the old bomb and believing that it contains gold, he and his worker brought the ordnance to his house in Almaguer South. They later sawed it but it exploded, prompting their neighbors to rush and rescue them.
The witnesses earlier mistook the loud sound as a gas tank or a transformer explosion.
The Provincial Explosives and Canine Unit (PECU) in Nueva Vizcaya has been inspecting the fragments to determine the type of the ordnance.
Aggasid said the explosion was self-inflicted, so they are not keen on filing criminal charges to anyone.
She reminded villagers to immediately report sightings of vintage bomb and allow experts to handle such cases instead of sawing the device.#
