LUMBY, B.C.—Members of a forestry crew in British Columbia believe they may have unearthed a Second World War-era Japanese balloon bomb in the Monashee Mountains.

A military bomb disposal unit has been sent to investigate the metal object found in the forest near Lumby, 460 km northeast of Vancouver.

Const. Ted Bowen said the crew contacted RCMP and the area has been sealed off because the metal object may be live ordnance.

Lt. Paul Pendergast of Maritime Forces Pacific said bomb disposal experts have yet to confirm that it is an explosive device.

“That’s what the team does — they investigate first whether it’s inert or whether it’s a hazard,” he said.

“Sometimes they’re a souvenir someone kept from World War II, and they may be inert or they may be live.”

“Then, if it’s determined to be a hazard they have a few options.”

Pendergast said the unit is called about once a month about suspect objects, he said.

If the object is a live ordnance of any kind, unit members will decide whether they can render it inert or must detonate it on site.

Bowen said if the object is a war relic, there is interest in salvaging as much as possible for a museum.

In the final years of the war, the Imperial Japanese Army released more than 9,000 bomb-bearing balloons to drift in the jet stream toward Canada and the United States.

At least 1,000 made it over the Pacific and landed as far inland as Michigan and Manitoba.

There were no deaths reported in Canada but an Oregon Sunday School teacher and five teens were killed when a balloon detonated on the side of a road almost 70 years ago.

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