Unexploded WWII Shell Discovered Near Japan's Bullet Train Track, Service Halted

Unexploded WWII Shell Found Feet From Japan Bullet Train
OSAKA, JAPAN - FEBRUARY 08: (CHINA OUT, SOUTH KOREA OUT) New Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train N700A is seen at Shin Osaka Station on February 8, 2013 in Osaka, Japan. The new train, boasting an automated speed control system and a host of passenger-friendly features, makes its commercial debut. (Photo by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images)
OSAKA, JAPAN - FEBRUARY 08: (CHINA OUT, SOUTH KOREA OUT) New Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train N700A is seen at Shin Osaka Station on February 8, 2013 in Osaka, Japan. The new train, boasting an automated speed control system and a host of passenger-friendly features, makes its commercial debut. (Photo by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images)

An unexploded World War II shell that was discovered just metres from a busy rail track halted high speed trains in Japan, as bomb disposal experts moved in to detonate it.

The travel plans of around 90,000 people were disrupted when an exclusion zone was thrown up around the shell, which was discovered in the north of Tokyo earlier this year.

A squad from the country's Ground Self-Defense Force piled sandbags on top of the shell before detonating it around noon.

A total of 150 train services, including 53 Shinkansen bullet-train services, were affected, a spokesman for East Japan Railway (JR East) said ahead of the operation, adding 90,000 people would be affected.

The 40-centimetre (16-inch) shell, believed to have belonged to Japan's imperial forces, was discovered during excavation work.

Despite massive redevelopment in the nearly 70 years since WWII, finds of unexploded ordinance are not uncommon in and around Japan's cities, which were heavily bombed by US forces.

Copyright (2013) AFP. All rights reserved.

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