A Pretoria scrapyard worker was killed and others are missing after a mortar believed to date back to World War II exploded as it was being cut up this morning.
The explosion saw emergency services cordoning off two blocks in Pretoria West as police bomb technicians raced to secure the scene and disarm what is believed to be other explosives in the scrapyard.
Pretoria West community policing forum chairman, Nagesh Chettey, said it appeared that several people had brought in a number of mortars.
"They go after the copper and brass compression cap.
"They were cutting it off when the mortar exploded and killed at least one person.
"There appears to be people who are definitely injured and some who might be missing," said Nagesh.
A policeman on the scene said that there were several mortars still lying around on the scene.
"It appears as though a number were brought to the scrapyard.
"The destruction is huge.
"The mortars that are here are big and appear to be 110mm mortars."
He said the bombs were often found along the Schuverberg hills bordering Atteridgeville and Saulsville which were used as a bombing range by the then South African Defence Force during WWII.
Emergency services have been unable to say how many are injured.
- Sipho Masombuka reports that eight cones in the middle of the road outside the scrap yard mark spots where body parts of the deceased were strewn.
Local area policing unit member Herbert Atkinson, first on the scene, said he was driving with his father in the area when he heard the loud explosion.
"We turned around and as I walked in I saw a man lying on the ground. His body was cut into half, legs separated from the torso. There were body pieces all over. It was really shocking," he said.
The scrap yard on Rebecca street is several meters from a nursery school and just over a kilometre from the Pretoria police college.
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