The Baltic Sea bed is littered with mines, bombs, and chemical weapons left over from the Second World War that could cause an environmental disaster, according to a leading Polish newspaper.
Gazeta Wyborcza wrote on Tuesday that between 40,000 and 100,000 tonnes of war-era weaponry lie at the bottom of various parts of the Baltic Sea.
The paper wrote that the exact quantity is difficult to estimate today. It is difficult to define all the dumping sites. After the Potsdam conference, soldiers from the Soviet Union who disarmed ammunition depots in Poland and Germany were responsible for 'neutralizing' German chemical weapons. It added that the Gotland Basin in the sea's centre between Sweden and the Baltic states was initially selected as the main dumping site.
The route turned out to be too far for the Russians, the paper wrote. Tonnes of barrels were thrown from vessels at random places on the convoy routes. Crates of chemical weapons drifted until the wood decayed. They were later carried by the currents to sit on the sea bed. According to official Soviet records, around 40,000 tons of weapons were dumped at a depth of about 100 metres, which was the second dumping site of Bornholm Basin to the east of the Danish island of Bornholm. Dozens of tonnes were also dumped in the Gdansk Basin near northern Poland's Hel Peninsula.
The chemical weapons are chiefly mustard gas, aerial bombs and mines containing poison, mostly mustard gas and arsenic, which have already left local fishermen with burns.