Child killed in Uganda by suspected old grenade - Police

A child was killed and eight others
wounded Wednesday in Uganda when a suspected old
grenade detonated as they played football, police
said, insisting it was not a new bomb.
The blast in the capital Kampala came on the eve of
presidential and parliamentary polls on Thursday, but
no connection was made with the explosion and the
election.
The blast occurred next to a primary school, but also
opposite a former military barracks, and police said it
was possibly old ordnance that was set off when the
children discovered and played with it.
"A child aged around 12 years, who has been
identified as Sam Lukemba, was fatally wounded... as
a result of an explosion from an object suspected to
be a remnant of an explosive buried in the ground,"
Kampala police spokesman Fred Enanga said in a
statement.
"A team of bomb experts has responded and are
assessing the scene for more details."
Eight other children were "seriously injured" and had
been taken to hospital, he added, without giving
further details.
Defence spokesman Paddy Ankunda insisted there
had been "no bomb blast in Kampala" and that
"children playing football found a peculiar object that
exploded killing one."
Unexploded ordnance has been found in the country
before.
In 2011, anti-landmine activists in western Uganda
were stunned to discover a primary school using an
unexploded mortar bomb as a bell. It was then safely
detonated.
"We want to caution members of the public,
especially children, against playing or tampering with
objects they are not sure of," Enanga added.
Uganda has experienced several periods of violence
over the past decades including the guerrilla war that
brought President Yoweri Museveni to power in 1986