Typhoon Lekima unearths Vietnam War-era bomb
HANOI, Vietnam: Police and military engineers in central Vietnam were trying to defuse a large Vietnam War-era bomb unearthed after floods caused by a typhoon last week, a police officer said Saturday.
The 500-pound bomb was found near a pier on the Ham Rong bridge which links the country's north with central and southern Vietnam, said Nguyen Van Nam, a police officer in Hoang Hoa district in Thanh Hoa province, some 150 kilometers (94 miles) south of Hanoi.
Authorities spotted the bomb when it was unearthed by receding flood waters triggered by Typhoon Lekima which slammed into Vietnam last week, Nam said.
The bomb was dropped by a U.S. plane in the early 1970s, he said.
U.S. planes dropped thousands of bombs during the Vietnam War on the Ham Rong bridge, a key road link for Communist forces, Nam said, adding that many bombs have been found since the war ended in 1975.
Heavy rains and landslides caused by Typhoon Lekima, which battered Vietnam's central coast last week, killed at least 89 people and left another 10 missing.
Last week, two other bombs were unearthed by the typhoon-triggered floods in the mountainous Son La province.
The Associated Press - October 12, 2007.
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