SERIOUSLY INJURED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 159, 18 April 1938, Page 3

SERIOUSLY INJURED

WARTIME BOMB EXPLOSION.

LAD PLAYING AT HIS HOME. (Per Press Association.) HASTINGS, April 16. The explosion of a war-time bomb resulted in Allen Proffitt, aged 141, receiving a badly shattered left hand and internal injuries, at bis home in Aladdison Street, Hastings, yesterday afternoon. He is now an. inmate of the Hastings Hospital, and his condition is serious.

The injured boy, who is a son of .Mr and Mrs T. Proffitt, had been examining the missile, which had been sent to New Zealand from France during the Great War, and was still caked with the mud of the trenches. The bomb had been in the house for years, and it w'as understood that the detonator had been removed, but it now appears it was merely hidden by mud and had remained a potential danger for more than 20 years before it finally exploded. The boy, who was alone outside the house, apparently tapped the bomb on the ground with his left hand, and it immediately exploded. When his parents rushed outside lie was lying on the ground unconscious and bleeding from his left hand. He was soon rushed to the hospital. This morning internal injuries were diagnosed in addition to the more apparent injuries to his hand. His condition was reported to bo still serious.