Children unearth 'Blitz bones' in London's Regent's Park
Fragments of human bone believed to be the remains of victims of the London Blitz have been discovered by children near a playground in Regent’s Park.
The discovery, almost 70 years after German Luftwaffe bombs destroyed large tracts of the capital, suggests that victims’ remains may still lie beneath London’s open spaces, buried along with the rubble from their devastated homes.
Police were called to Regent’s Park when children digging in the soil near the Gloucester Gate entrance unearthed pieces of old bone of between 1cm and 5cm in length. The area was cordoned off and forensic teams identified the remains as human.
Detectives and forensic anthropologists from the Natural History Museum concluded that the age and location of the remains, found to be both human and animal, were consistent with bomb debris buried in the park during the Second World War and classed the discovery, made in May this year, as an “archaeological find”.
Read entire article at Times (UK)
The discovery, almost 70 years after German Luftwaffe bombs destroyed large tracts of the capital, suggests that victims’ remains may still lie beneath London’s open spaces, buried along with the rubble from their devastated homes.
Police were called to Regent’s Park when children digging in the soil near the Gloucester Gate entrance unearthed pieces of old bone of between 1cm and 5cm in length. The area was cordoned off and forensic teams identified the remains as human.
Detectives and forensic anthropologists from the Natural History Museum concluded that the age and location of the remains, found to be both human and animal, were consistent with bomb debris buried in the park during the Second World War and classed the discovery, made in May this year, as an “archaeological find”.