Malaysia finds cannon shell from Chinese ship

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Malaysia finds cannon shell from Chinese ship

Malaysia's marine agency has said it has found a cannon shell believed to be from the second world war on a Chinese-registered vessel and was investigating whether the barge carrier was involved in the looting of two British warships in the South China Sea.

The agency said on Sunday it detained the vessel registered in Fuzhou, China, on Sunday for anchoring without a permit off southern Johor state and that an inspection revealed scrap metal and a cannon shell it suspected dated from the second World War. There were 32 crew members on board, including 21 Chinese, 10 from Bangladesh and a Malaysian.

The military agency said the shell was linked to the police seizure of dozens of unexploded artillery and other relics at a private scrapyard in Johor. The New Straits Times newspaper reported that the ammunition was believed to be from the warships and that police conducted an on-site controlled explosion of the weapons.

Malaysian media reported that illegal salvage crews were believed to have targeted the HMS Repulse and the HMS Prince of Wales, sunk by Japanese torpedoes in 1941, days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

There were a total of 842 sailors aboard the shipwrecks, and the shipwrecks off the coast of Pahang state are known as war graves. fishermen and divers alerted authorities after spotting a foreign vessel near the area last month.

Images and a video released by the agency showed a barge carrier with a large crane and heaps of rusty metal on board. Prewar steel, the material from the two warships, is valuable and could be smelted for use in the production of some scientific and medical equipment.

The National Heritage Department and others will work together to identify the cannon shell, the agency said.

Britain's National Museum of the Royal Navy said last week it was distressed and concerned at the apparent vandalism for personal profit.

In 2015, foreign treasure hunters used homemade explosives to detonate the heavy steel plates on the ships for easy picks, the New Straits Times reported. The Vietnamese authorities detained a Vietnamese vessel that was involved in the looting of the wreckage at the time.