Lucknow, Oct 23 (IANS): An Indian Army bomb disposal team has successfully extracted and destroyed 555 unexploded bombs that were buried underground for the past 14 years here, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The task of safe extraction and final disposal of the explosives was undertaken by the Counter Explosive Device Unit of Headquarters Central Command, Lucknow after a request was made by the civil administration.

It began on October 12 and was successfully completed on October 21 near the banks of Feeka river near Hajiro village in Udham Singh Nagar district where the unexploded bombs were destroyed, the spokesperson said.

"The bombs were destroyed in small segregated batches by controlled explosions, so as to mitigate any threat to the local populace, wildlife and properties in the vicinity," an official told IANS.

Out of the 16 containers, one or two had dangerous and extremely hazardous consignments which were brought in 2004 from Iraq. The scrap had a total of 555 unexploded explosive ordnance and bombs which were later established as artillery, mortar shells and other projectiles of the Gulf War, the officials said.

"These were bought by SD Steel Factory, Kashipur from a scrap dealer at Tuglaqabad, Delhi. A blast had occurred at the factory in December 2004 resulting in injury and death of workers post which the hazardous unexploded ammunition was buried under the ground," they added.