Bomb Squad Called to Hospital Over WW1 Object Found in Patient’s Rectum

According to what The New York Post has dubbed a “bum-shell report,” a 24-year-old was taken to the Rangueil Accident and Emergency unit in Toulouse, France, on Saturday night “in a state of extreme discomfort, having inserted a large object up his rectum,” per a police source. During emergency surgery, doctors discovered that he what he’d inserted was a World War I-era bomb —and it was live.

Rectal Bomb Forces Hospital Evacuation

The pointed incendiary device, which dated back to 1918, measured 8 inches long and was around an inch in circumference. According to the source, because “it had not exploded … bomb disposal experts had to be called to diffuse the shell, with the fire brigade standing by.” As doctors finished surgery, the bomb was taken away; the hospital was evacuated and an emergency perimeter was set up until the explosive could be safely dealt with. 

Curiously, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened in France: According to The Daily Mail, doctors at Hospital Sainte Musse in Toulon faced a similar situation in 2022, when an 88-year-old man arrived with an 8-inch-long bomb in his anus, which The Daily Mail said he had likely “inserted … for sexual pleasure.”

It’s not known why the 24-year-old put this bomb in his backside, though media outlets speculated that it might have been some kind of party stunt. Where he got the device is also unclear. The bomb was the kind used by the Imperial German Army along the Western Front, according to the Post, and they’re often collected during an annual event known as the “Iron Harvest,” where people can bring in unexploded munitions “found on farmland, building sites, and other disrupted land.” The patient could face legal consequences; he’s set to be interviewed by police for handling “category A munitions” this week.

Rectal Objects Are a Common Reason for Emergency Room Visit

Patients coming to the hospital with stuff stuck into their rectums is not a rare occurrence: According to Vice, one study in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, which looked at the data from 2012 to 2021, revealed that some 39,000 visits a year in the United States have to do with “rectal foreign bodies.” Of the things inserted by the patients—mostly male, mostly middle-aged—more than 55 percent were sex toys.

Vice looked at the records from 2025 and compiled a list of what it called “some of the worst items found in people’s butts,” which included a full shampoo bottle, a baseball, a turkey baster, a corn cob holder, and a thermos, among other items.