World War II-era ammo found on S.African beach

He said they were blown up in controlled explosions on Tuesday, shortly after they were found.

Three ageing artillery shells have been discovered on a beach in the South African city of Durban during construction work ahead of the 2010 football World Cup, police said Wednesday.

- We are still busy investigating their provenance but it seems that they date back to pre-1950. They were very rusty but still potentially dangerous - police inspector Michael Read told AFP.

He said they were blown up in controlled explosions on Tuesday, shortly after they were found.

A total of seven shells have been discovered on the same beach this month.

The beach remains open to the public, but police are searching for other shells in the area, which is popular with swimmers and tourists.

Mike Laing of the South African Military History Society said the shells likely washed up from a World War II-era underwater dumping site, well-marked on sea charts.

- Anything like that is clearly dangerous - he said. - The only safe thing is to destroy it. -

The ammunition was washing ashore now because of changing ocean currents and construction to widen the mouth of the harbour, he said.

- My guess is that if these have been washing up for the past month, there will probably be more - Laing said.