AN old smoking bomb was found during works to strengthen and reconstruct the seawall along Jalan Tun Syed Sheh Barakbah in Fort Cornwallis, George Town, today.

The Penang Fire and Rescue Department operations centre said it received a call on the discovery at 6.10pm before a fire engine from the Lebuh Pantai station was deployed to the scene.

“Inspection at the site found a 0.3m-long old bomb under the soil where dredging works were being conducted. The workers said they had detected the smoke since yesterday,” it said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Northeast district police chief Soffian Santong when contacted, confirmed the discovery and said the bomb disposal unit was expected to destroy the bomb tonight.

The project site is located within the George Town Unesco World Heritage Site core and buffer zones for the Fort Cornwallis National Heritage Site. 

Several artefacts had been found in the area since 2018. – Bernama, September 26, 2020.