Explosion at US air base in southern Japan injures 4 Japanese soldiers

An explosion at a storage site for unexploded wartime ordinances at a US military base on Japan's southern island of Okinawa injured four Japanese soldiers, though the injuries are not life threatening, officials said on Monday.

The four soldiers had injuries to their fingers while working at a facility that belongs to Okinawa prefecture to store unexploded ordnance found on the island, where one of the harshest battles of World War II was fought, local officials said.

Prefectural officials said the injuries were not life threatening, but no other details were immediately known.

The Self Defence Force's joint staff said they were looking into reports of an explosion at Kadena Air Base that occurred while a team of Japanese soldiers that specialises in handling unexploded ordnance was working near or at the base.

 

The SDF said they are trying to confirm the cause of the accident and where it occurred.

Hundreds of tons of unexploded wartime bombs, many of them dropped by the US military, remain buried around Japan and are sometimes dug up at construction sites and elsewhere.

In October, an unexploded wartime US bomb exploded at a commercial airport in southern Japan, causing a large crater and suspending dozens of flights.