Construction workers unearthed a pair of World War II bomb casings on a construction site in Playa Vista, Calif., Monday.
The rusted, 9-foot-long pointed cylinders were dug up during site preparation for a planned community project. Approximately 1,600 residents and students were evacuated from nearby Loyola Marymount University while bomb experts determined whether the casings were still explosive. Dozens of construction workers were also evacuated from the jobsite.
Military bomb specialists examined the cylinders, and decided they were safe to remove. One of the casings was filled with concrete and the other lacked a fuse and a propeller. Because the two casings weighed approximately 1,000 to 2,000 pounds each, crews carefully removed them with equipment and loaded them into trucks that transported them to Fort Irwin.
Area residents and most of the construction workers were not allowed to return to the site until early Monday night. Federal officials spent the evening using radars to search for additional antiquated bombs on the construction site.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, the military used the site during World War II for training. LAPD Capt. Ken Hillman thinks the casings were used as props, and were left behind and buried after the war.
