The Madagascan army was searching for unexploded shells in a harbour on the northern tip of the Indian Ocean island yesterday after fishermen spotted the weapons, dating from the French era, an official said. The army found more than 40 of the shells in the water and on shore after cordoning off the area near Diego Suarez.

“We think there may be more”, army chief of staff, Major General Raonenantsoamampianina told Reuters. “They are extremely dangerous and could in theory explode at any time. We are advising people in the area to move with caution. We’ve secured the sites and are now doing a wider search.” The military was alerted last week by fishermen who came across the shells in the waters near Diego Suarez.

Diego Suarez was a strategic base defended by the French colonial government which completed its conquest of Madagascar in 1895. Raonenantsoamampianina said the shells matched the calibre of two types of French colonial-era canons whose ruins are still dotted around the harbour.

“The canons are late 19th century. We think the bombs were discarded at the end of the First World War when this model of canon was getting obsolete and the French had no further use for them”, he said. Madagascar played a key role in World War One, supplying vital food and minerals to the French army. More than 40,000 Madagascans were enlisted, most as combatants. One in 10 died in the trenches.

British warships captured Diego Suarez from France’s collaborationist Vichy regime during World War II, fearing the harbour could be used by Japan to block supply routes to India.

The base’s capture led to the fall of the Vichy government in Madagascar and the island was handed back to the French colonial government of Charles de Gaulle at the end of the war. Madagascar won independence from France in 1960.

Tim COCKS