21 May 2023 , 15:42
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A dad has been killed and his two sons left seriously injured after a grenade detonated inside their home.
The war time bomb exploded at the property in Indiana, US, on Saturday.
The man died after the family had been going through the grandfather's belongings and stumbled upon the war weapon.
Police say it suddenly went off when one of them pulled the pin.
The teenagers - one aged 14 and the other 18-years-old, were both rushed to the hospital with shrapnel wounds and remain in a stable condition.
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Police at the scene on Saturday afternoon (WGN NEWS)According to the Lake County Sheriff’s Department, they discovered the items at the home and found the hand grenade amongst the box.
Police called the Porter County Bomb Squad to secure the area and they determine no more explosive devices were at the house.
When deputies arrived at the scene, they found an unresponsive man who was later pronounced dead.
The Department’s crime scene investigation unit and homicide detectives are investigating the blast.
The tragedy came two years after a teenager in Virginia was killed after a supposed 'inactive' Second World War era hand grenade exploded.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives say it was purchased from Fancy Flea Antique Mall in Shallotte, North Carolina.
It worried locals when officials said other grenades were “possibly sold from the same vendor” and that law enforcement officials were “concerned the grenades purchased from the vendor may contain live explosives and could be hazardous to the public.”
It is estimated that 20 million MK2 grenades were manufactured from the 1920s, until a new model replaced it in the late 1960s.
A three to five second delay precedes the explosion after the pin is pulled, experts say.
A grenade’s explosion is lethal within a 16 foot zone - within a 50 foot zone, injuries can “vary from life-threatening to maybe nothing.”
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