Months of fighting in Misrata, Libya, have left an abundance of unexploded bombs scattered all over the city, some of which has been gathered by residents and placed in informal displays in front of buildings and in public spaces such as parks.

Yet these informal museums include some extremely dangerous unexploded bombs, and an ordnance disposal team from the ACT Alliance is working with local residents and city officials to neutralise the threat posed to civilians by the war debris

While many of the displays are on the street in front of homes, some are in city parks that fill with families in the evening. “These makeshift museums are absolutely lethal. If one munition blows up, they all blow up since they are so closely packed,” said Briton Richard MacCormack, head of the de-mining team.

Abdul Majeed (left), holds the remains of a rifle grenade that landed near his family's home in April but didn't explode. His 15-year old son Mohammed (right) found the mortar and while playing with it the next day and lost part of his left hand when it exploded. He has since had three operations on his arm.

Hisham Algaid was injured in May when he and some other boys were playing with some unexploded heavy machine gun rounds they found on the streets. His brother Mohammed died of his injuries, and two other boys were seriously injured and sent to Tunisia for treatment.

Explosives from the nearby front lines are also gathered in a formal display in a public building beside a Misrata mosque. "It’s impossible for civilians to know which ordnance is live and which is spent," said Richard MacCormack.

The team visited several sites and urged people to move the weapons away from public areas. Here Fred Pavey (second from right) explains to local officials some of the dangerous items present, including fused anti-tank mortars

Fred Pavey said: "We’ve got to disarm whatever is there, neutralising it without any risk to the operator or threat to the surrounding property. We would normally blow up some of these items where we find them, but I’m not sure we can do that in some of these settings."