A construction worker suffered slight injuries Monday afternoon when a shell believed to date from World War II exploded at a construction site in the town of Nishihara, Okinawa Prefecture, police said.
According to police, the bomb exploded at around 3 p.m., hitting the worker in the head with a piece of shrapnel.
The worker had been using a bulldozer to level ground at the site when he noticed smoke coming from underneath, police said. When he looked for the source of the smoke, the shell exploded.
The construction site is part of a prefectural government project to reclaim roughly 142 hectares of land in the Nakagusuku Bay area. The project began in 1996 and is scheduled to be completed in fiscal 2003.