Needham police teamed up with Massachusetts State Police on Monday to search the Charles River for military supplies including explosives after the discovery of a WWII-era bazooka in the water last week, police said.
Needham police urged the public to avoid the Kendrick Street bridge area, where the search was focused, the department said in a Facebook post. The department said there was no risk to the public.
The search turned up “a large elongated tank containing an unknown substance,” but state hazardous materials specialists determined the tank did not contain any hazardous materials, State Police said in a statement. The tank was subsequently disposed of by the Needham Department of Public Works.
On March 6, a fisherman at the river was using a fishing magnet when he found what State Police determined was a World War II-era bazooka round, the agency told MassLive.
After the item was found at around 11:30 a.m., police and firefighters secured the area before two members of the State Police Bomb Squad arrived at around 1 p.m.
Out of caution, the bomb squad removed the round to a secure location and disposed of it through a method called a counter charge, State Police said.
The discovery of that round was the second in less than a week, after officials found a round in the area on March 1, according to State Police. That projectile, believed to be from either the first or second World Wars, was also found by a fisherman with a magnet.
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