Engineer killed after old bomb he tried to cut open explodes

SOUTH COTABATO, Philippines — An engineer was killed Wednesday when a large World War II-era bomb he tried to cut into pieces using an electric steel cutter exploded.

The body of Vincent Claus Degula was mangled almost beyond recognition when the bomb went off while he was cutting the bomb in a friend's house in Maligo in Polomolok town in South Cotabato.

Police Lt. Col. Marvin Duadua, chief of the Polomolok municipal police, said Degula, a civil engineer, found the bomb in a barangay where he is supervising an infrastructure project.

Usually, police or military explosive ordnance disposal teams are called in to dispose of unexploded ordnance that are sometimes found in construction sites.

Degula instead brought the bomb to the house of a friend named Joseph Namion, a mechanic who had power tools, to open the rusty metal casement of the bomb.

A scared Namion left his house when Degula refused to listen to his warning against using the steel cutter on the bomb.

Duadua said the loud explosion caused panic among villagers in Barangay Maligo.