The police reported earlier in the evening that smoke was coming from the explosive. The area was cordoned off. According to Limburg media, it was a phosphorus bomb.
Things went wrong when the magnet fishermen had removed the explosive from the water. “If the bomb comes into contact with oxygen from the air, it explodes. That also happened here,” deputy mayor Freed Janssen of the municipality of Landgraaf told 1Limburg.
The explosive was found on the Kapelweien, near the border with Germany. Residents were urged via Burgernet to close windows and doors because chemical fumes could be released. The explosives disposal service has taken the explosive.