In an incident that sounds plucked from an implausible war-zone anecdote rather than a southern French emergency room, Rangueil Hospital in Toulouse was partially evacuated after a 24-year-old man arrived at its emergency department with a nearly 20-centimetre World War One artillery shell lodged in his rectum.
The extraordinary case unfolded late Saturday night into early Sunday morning when the young man presented with severe pain, telling medical staff only that he had “inserted an object” that he could not remove.
Initial examinations offered no hint of what doctors would soon discover.
During an operation to remove the foreign body, surgeons were stunned to find what appeared to be a First World War artillery projectile — a German-made shell believed to date back to 1918 — lodged in the patient’s rectum.
Given the device’s intact appearance and historic origins, safety protocols quickly escalated.
Authorities were notified and a bomb disposal unit, along with firefighters and police, were dispatched to the hospital.
Staff and patients were evacuated from portions of the facility while explosives experts established a security perimeter and worked to neutralize the risk.
Fire crews remained on standby during the operation.
Officials later declared the shell safe, with no explosive threat once the projectile had been assessed and rendered secure.
The patient, whose identity has not been released, remained under medical care following the extraction.
French authorities said the man told doctors he had inserted the shell himself, though details about how he acquired the nearly century-old munition have not been disclosed.
Investigators are examining potential violations of weapons legislation related to the possession and handling of military ordnance.
This case is not without precedent. French media noted a similar incident in 2022 when an 88-year-old man arrived at a hospital in Toulon with another World War One ordinance lodged internally, prompting evacuations and bomb squad involvement before being removed.
Unexploded shells and other munitions from both world wars remain common across parts of France, particularly in former battle zones, where they surface during construction or agricultural work.
But rarely, if ever, have they inspired such a surreal detour from battlefield to hospital corridor.
notthebee.com
