Grenade event in Oswiecim County, Babice area, Poland on Fri 15th September 2023

Four pieces of unexploded World War Two ordnance – including artillery shells and a grenade – have been discovered in the walls of a church in southern Poland during renovation work. Last week, local police were informed of the find in Babice, a village located between the cities of Kraków and Katowice, around 20 kilometres from the former German-Nazi camp of Auschwitz. When they arrived, they determined that there were two artillery shells lodged in a wall surrounding the church grounds (one of which is pictured above) as well as a grenade and a bullet embedded in one of the walls of the church itself (pictured below). The area was secured by police while army specialists were called in to remove the shells from the outer wall, which were then transported to a warehouse used to securely store such finds. The army will return to remove the grenade and bullet “in the near future”, said the police in a statement on Friday. The discovery of munitions, weapons and other material from World War Two is common in Poland, which saw intense fighting after being invaded and occupied by both Germany and the Soviet Union.