10 large WWII artillery shells found on Viimsi peninsula

TALLINN - Ten large-caliber World War II-era artillery shells were found in a forest in Rohuneeme village on Viimsi peninsula, just outside Tallinn, earlier this week.

The pieces of ordnance have been removed and will be disposed of elsewhere, the "Aktuaalne kaamera" television news program of public broadcaster ERR reported.

The removal work was carried out by the Rescue Board's bomb disposal unit for North Estonia and took two days.

"280-millimeter artillery shells from World War II have been found in the Rohuneeme forest. This projectile itself weighs 300 kilograms and, if the explosive is inside, then it's about 20 kilograms of explosives," Raido Taalmann, leader of the bomb disposal unit, said.

The explosives were removed from the ground and taken to special disposal sites. Taalmann said the projectiles probably date back to 1944.

"They were scattered along the area in the ground. According to our information, before the German army left, they did not manage to take these large projectiles with them, but destroyed them on the spot. And this rapid destruction usually means that they fly along the forest floor and stay there," the EOD unit chief said according to the English-language news portal of ERR.

The explosives were found after an analysis of the calls made to the Rescue Board earlier and known information about the history of the area.