People who came to empty the house of a deceased centenarian threw a bag into the fire which contained “between 15 and 20 kilos of explosives”. The explosion was heard seven kilometers away.
A fatal explosion occurred on Saturday September 30 around 9 a.m. in the town of La Meauffe, at a place called Cour Talvas, in the Manche department (Normandy). A 64-year-old man died, reports France Bleu Cotentin. A judicial investigation was opened, entrusted to the Coutances public prosecutor’s office. She will have to determine the circumstances of this explosion.
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Two people were injured: a 64-year-old man, seriously injured and who was evacuated by helicopter to Caen University Hospital, and a 51-year-old man, slightly injured and transported to Saint-Lô hospital. Firefighters also treated two people who were in shock, but did not require hospitalization.
Broken windows, blown roofs
According to the first elements of the investigation, five people met on Saturday to empty a house put up for sale, after the death of the owner, a centenarian, a year ago. During their sorting, they lit a fire outside (a practice although prohibited), near buildings in the uninhabited hamlet of Cour Talvas, located in the commune of La Meauffe.
These people then “threw into the fire a bag containing between 15 and 20 kilos of explosives dating from the Second World War, including shells which had been dismantled”, explains the mayor of La Meauffe Pascal Langlois to France Bleu Cotentin. The explosion that followed “was heard in villages seven kilometers around, an impressive noise”. The blast caused by the explosion hit an unoccupied house and an agricultural shed, “breaking windows and blowing off roofs.”
Five more kilos of explosives found
Very significant resources were deployed: around thirty firefighters, a SMUR medical team and the Dragon 50 helicopter, as well as the gendarmerie. Mine clearance teams and a chemical risk specialist were also mobilized. The area was cordoned off while operations took place.
After an inspection of the site, deminers found another five kilos of ammunition dating from the Second World War. They were destroyed in a nearby field around 5 p.m., reports France Bleu Cotentin. The departmental road RD 974 is now reopened to traffic, specifies the Manche prefecture in a press release.