WWII Bomb Kills 8 in Bangkok

Workers at a scrap shop in Thailand's capital accidentally detonated a large bomb believed to have been dropped during World War II, killing at least eight people and injuring 20 others, police say. Bangkok's bomb squad chief says construction workers found the bomb buried at a building site and sold it to the scrap shop. Workers at the shop were using a gas-powered thermal cutter to take the bomb apart when it exploded yesterday.

The massive blast ripped apart the scrap shop in Bangkok's Lad Plakao neighborhood and damaged nearby houses. Authorities initially reported seven dead, but search crews later found a child's body in the rubble, believed to be a girl about 4 years old. Bangkok was bombed by US and British planes during World War II, when it was occupied by Japanese forces and served as a hub for their campaign in Southeast Asia. (More World War II stories.)