Streets closed after Civil War shell found in SC city

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Several downtown streets in South Carolina’s largest city were closed Wednesday after construction crews found a Civil War artillery shell, police said.

The crew called 911 around 10 a.m. to report the shell in downtown Charleston, just over a block from the Old Slave Mart where dozens of vendors sell merchandise, Charleston police said.

The police department called the U.S. Air Force to dispose of the shell and closed several nearby roads for about three hours as a precaution.

Investigators initially said the shell appeared to be newer than the Civil War, but after further investigation, concluded it was left over from the war between the Union and the Confederacy between 1861 and 1865, police spokesman Charles Francis said in a statement.

No injuries were reported.