WWII-era weapons stash shuts down Los Angeles port terminal
A stash of inert World War II-era munitions discovered at a Port of Los Angeles scrap metal facility Sunday prompted an evacuation of the facility, appearances by the local bomb squad and FBI, and phone calls to military explosive experts.
Workers at the Sims Hugo Neu scrap metal plant on Terminal Island discovered the old hand grenades, mortar rounds and rocket propelled grenades Sunday morning during the course of moving scrap material in the yard. Harbor police were notified, who in turn notified the Los Angeles Police Department.
The LAPD bomb squad, working with experts from the Explosive Ordinance Disposal Detachment at nearby Camp Pendleton Marine base, neutralized the devices in two detonations at an undisclosed location.
The devices were likely models used for training and did not appear to contain explosives, port officials told the Daily Breeze newspaper.
The terminal was reopened this morning.
The Daily Breeze reported that Sims Hugo Neu officials could not be reached for comment.
Rocket-propelled grenades were developed by the Soviets during WWII by incorporating aspects of U.S. and German hand-held missile launchers, such as the Bazooka. Weighing less than 10 pounds and manufactured in mass quantities by the former-Soviet Union and later China, they have been a weapon of choice for guerilla and insurgent forces around the world for decades. North Vietnamese fighters in the 1960s and Afghan mujhadeen fighters in the 1980s were reported to have been adept enough with the shoulder-launched weapons to bring down military helicopters with a single round.
WWII-era weapons stash shuts down Los Angeles port terminal
