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Two men have been hospitalised after a World War Two artillery shell that one of them had found in the forest and brought home exploded in his apartment while they were under the influence of alcohol.
In response to the incident, which resulted in dozens of people being evacuated from the building, police have issued a reminder that anyone who finds unexploded historical ordnance – large amounts of which remain scattered around Poland – to contact the authorities immediately and never to attempt to interfere with it.
On Wednesday, police in Głubczyce, a town of 12,000 people in southern Poland, announced that they had responded to a report that a window had been damaged in an apartment building in a manner that looked like it had been caused by an explosion.
When arriving at the property at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning, they found three people – men aged 62 and 65 and a 45-year-old woman – all under the influence of alcohol.
The woman and the younger man, who is the owner of the apartment, had blood alcohol levels of 2.5 per mille (0.25% blood alcohol content), which is over 12 times Poland’s drink-drive limit. Both men were hospitalised with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police also discovered extensive damage inside the apartment, with photographs appearing to show a hole in the floor resulting from an explosion.
Sniffer dogs trained to find explosives and a bomb-disposal team were dispatched to the scene. Thirty-six residents from elsewhere in the building were evacuated during the operation.
The police report that their findings indicate that a World War Two artillery shell exploded in the apartment. “The owner [of the property] admitted to finding it while walking in the woods several years ago and bringing it home,” they added.
Further searches of the property uncovered another such “souvenir” in the form of a mine. Police counter-terrorism sappers were called in to securely remove the device and neutralise it at a military training ground.
Residents were then cleared to return to the building and police and prosecutors have launched an investigation into the incident.
Unexploded ordnance is regularly discovered in Poland, which suffered heavy fighting during World War Two. Earlier this year, wild boars dug up 21 mortar shells that had been buried in a Polish forest since the war.
Wild boars dug up 21 mortar shells from World War Two that had been buried in a Polish forest.
The unexploded ordnance has now been safely removed without harm to either the animals or humans https://t.co/W9kaPr1BNw
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 17, 2025
In 2023, 72 unexploded artillery shells were discovered during renovation work at a primary school. In the same year, four pieces of unexploded World War Two ordnance were found in the walls of a church that was being renovated.
In response to the latest incident in Głubczyce, police reminded people that, “if you discover an object resembling unexploded ordnance, you must not, under any circumstances, move, touch, or disarm it”.
“The area where it is located should be secured from access by unauthorised persons, especially children”, and then “the disocvery should be reproted to the nearest police station as soon as possible”.
In January this year, the former national chief of police, Jarosław Szymczyk, was indicted for illegal possession of an anti-tank grenade launcher (a modern one, gifted to him by Ukrainian colleagues) and causing it to discharge at the national police headquarters.
Poland's former head of police has been charged with illegally possessing and accidentally firing a grenade launcher that he received as a gift on a visit to Ukraine.
The incident left the police chief hospitalised and a hole in the floor of his office https://t.co/wXmmUzdb9J
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 30, 2024
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Image credits: Opolska Policja (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
