Weapons dump found in Baltic Sea

Photo: Swedish Coast GuardThousands of suspected chemical weapons have been found on the sea bed south west of Sweden’s Gotland Island, reports local station Radio Östergötland.

A survey of chemical weapons in the Baltic Sea by the Swedish Maritime Administration uncovered about 50,000 unidentified objects. Between 10,000 to 15,000 of them may be chemical weapons.

The area is believed to have been a dumping ground for ammunition following the Second World War.

As long as the weapons remain on the sea bed they pose no danger to the general public. However they can be dangerous for fishing boats.

“There’s a general fishing ban in these kind of dumping areas but we’ve seen evidence that trawlers have been there,” said Ulf Olsson, head of sea mapping at the maritime authority.

“They may have pulled bombs up on deck and then cut the nets and dumped them right back in because they realised they were dangerous.”

The results of the survey will be presented to Baltic Sea countries in 2014 and a decision may then come on how to deal with the dumped armaments.

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