BERLIN - Five children were injured here yesterday, two of them seriously, when a second World War grenade they were playing with exploded. A fire brigade spokesman said: "The explosion was probably caused by a war hand grenade." Police and firefighters evacuated apartment buildings surrounding the yard where the children, aged 10 to 13, were playing.
"I heard the explosion and came running out. I saw the children in the yard," said Christian Schroeder (16), who lives nearby. He and a friend ran to help the children and called the emergency services.
"The explosion gave them such a shock that they were running about in the yard. We had to catch them and calm them down. Two of them were lying in the yard totally covered in blood. It took five to 10 minutes for the ambulance to come."
The two children seriously hurt had multiple cuts to the upper body from grenade fragments. Unexploded war bombs are still occasionally found in Germany, often by construction workers.