A hospital in southern France was partially evacuated after a man turned up at the emergency department with a World War I artillery shell lodged in his rectum.
The incident happened late Saturday night at Rangueil Hospital in Toulouse, where a 24-year-old man was admitted in severe discomfort. Medical staff quickly discovered he had inserted a large object, which was later identified during surgery as an eight-inch artillery shell dating back to 1918.
Because the munition was believed to be live, hospital staff alerted emergency services. Bomb disposal experts and firefighters were called to the scene, and parts of the hospital were evacuated as a precaution. Authorities also set up a security perimeter around the building while the device was assessed.
Fortunately, specialists determined that the shell did not pose an immediate explosive threat. The bomb squad removed the device, and the patient remained in the hospital to recover following the operation.
Police are expected to interview the man, and prosecutors are reportedly considering possible legal action for handling what are classified as “category A munitions.”
Artillery shells like the one recovered were widely used during World War I, particularly along the Western Front between 1914 and 1918. Even today, unexploded munitions from both world wars are regularly found in France during what is known as the “Iron Harvest,” an annual collection of old explosives uncovered on farmland and construction sites.
Unusual as the situation may seem, it is not entirely without precedent. In 2022, another French hospital was forced to partially evacuate after an elderly patient arrived with a World War I artillery shell lodged in a similar manner.
