Workers at a school in Solomon Islands discovered a buried stockpile of the second world war munitions as they “dug a hole for sewage”, police said.

More than 200 rust-caked projectiles – which once belonged to US troops – have been dug up and removed after they were found near a school staff member’s house, the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force said.

Japan and the United States fought viciously to control Solomon Islands at the height of the second world war, littering the South Pacific archipelago with unexploded ordnance – or UXOs – that still take lives today.