Possible military weapon discovered in Kalamalka Lake

VERNON –  A military dive team will be probing Kalamalka Lake for a suspected unexploded ordnance after someone spotted a round object nestled in the sand about 20 feet underwater.

Around 2 p.m. August 5, a man was sea-dooing in the Cosens Bay area when he noticed an object on the lake bottom, about 100 feet offshore. He described it as being a four-inch round object with fins on the back.

"We know that many years ago that was a popular area to lob mortars," RCMP spokesperson Gord Molendyk says. "Periodically, one does show up."

The police got in touch with the local military police, who attended the area by boat. Sometime Tuesday an ordnance team from Esquimalt, and a military dive team will be on scene to retrieve the object to determine if it is in fact a mortar.

Whether the item is live or not, or even if it isn't any kind of military device at all, Molendyk says the man did the right thing by alerting authorities.

"Some of them do have explosives in them, but a number don't," he says. "It was a test range area before. This area was used in the Second World War as a training ground, there are various areas in our community where they have found ordnances."

To contact the reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infotelnews.ca, call (250)309-5230 or tweet @charhelston.