Khaberni - A 24-year-old French man caused a state of panic and a security alert at Rangueil Hospital in Toulouse after doctors discovered a live artillery shell, dating back to World War I, measuring about 20 centimeters inside his body.
According to the newspaper "Mirror", the young man arrived at the emergency department on Saturday evening suffering from severe pain and extreme difficulty, which prompted the doctors to conduct an urgent examination.
The patient underwent emergency surgery, and during the extraction of the object, the surgeons discovered that it was an artillery shell dating back to the end of World War I, made of brass, 20 centimeters in length and 4 centimeters in width.
The emergency situation escalated when the medical team realized that the shell had not yet exploded, prompting immediate contact with bomb disposal experts, while the police arrived at the scene around 1:40 AM and established a security perimeter around the accident and emergency department.
Staff and patients were evacuated from the hospital as a precautionary measure, while fire brigade teams were on standby to prevent any potential fire hazard during the intervention. The bomb disposal experts examined the shell and determined it to be a 37mm type, used by the Imperial German Army at the end of World War I.
Police sources indicated that the patient might face questioning this week, as prosecutors are considering legal action against him for handling "Class-A ammunition", as no official explanation has been provided on how the shell ended up inside the man's body.
It is worth mentioning that France experienced a similar case in 2022, when an 88-year-old man arrived at a hospital in Toulon, southern France, with a World War I shell measuring 8 inches inside him.
