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Discovery of 18th Century Cannonballs Leads to Evacuations

A resident of a village in the Orenburg region found five cannonballs supposedly left over from the 1773-1775 Pugachev Rebellion against Catherine the Great, local police said in a statement Wednesday.

Police in the village of Novonikitino have evacuated nearby buildings and have called in bomb disposal experts to remove the cannonballs, which were thought to be potentially explosive, the statement said, Interfax reported.

The cannonballs were found buried in the earth at a depth of 50 centimeters.

This is not the first time that unexploded cannonballs from the Pugachev Rebellion have been discovered in Orenburg. In 2008 a similar cache was discovered.

See also:

Muscovite Discovers Homemade Bomb Under Car

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