Military device explodes outside Delaware home, one injured

A New Castle neighborhood was evacuated and police were on the scene for most of the day Tuesday trying to figure out how a military device exploded.

Dover Air Force Base officials sent an explosive ordnance disposal team to New Castle after the explosion. One man was critically injured as he opened a container that had been discarded in his neighbor’s trash.

Authorities said the incident was reported shortly after 8 a.m. A man injured in the incident was taken to Christiana Hospital.

A New Castle County paramedic official said explosives experts were called after investigators found other devices that appeared to be suspicious. 

The News Journal reports about a dozen homes were evacuated in the area shortly after noon.

One neighbor, Helen Williams told NewsWorks that police made people move cars off the street in the block. A police officer on the scene told NewsWorks that it may have been a Vietnam War era device.

A spokeswoman for Dover Air Force Base said a five-member explosive ordnance disposal unit was dispatched to the scene to assist in the investigation.