Military officers in the southern province of Dong Thap on Monday safely removed a bomb weighing around 200 kilograms from a local family’s backyard.

The bomb was found at more than one meter underground three days earlier, when the family had workers dig up their backyard to make a pond.

It was only several meters from their house. 

Officers said the bomb might have been there since the Vietnam War, which ended more than 40 years ago.

Unexploded ordnance still threatens a fifth of land mass across Vietnam and explosions occur frequently.

Deputy Minister of Defense Nguyen Chi Vinh said last October that the explosions kill more than 1,500 people every year and maim and injure 2,200 more.