A defence expert said the device in question was a Soviet OFAB bomb.

Chief of Staff Tibor Benkõ visited the site to monitor the official investigation launched by Defence Minister István Simicskó.

The dead soldiers – Sgt. Maj. Attila Juhász, Sgt. Maj. Nándor Rózsa, Sgt. Ádám Balázs and Lance Sgt. Gábor Kazár – were all in their thirties, and will be officially listed as “killed in action”.

Benkõ said the area is riddled with as many as 40,000 bombs and other grenades.

Forensic expert Attila Ladocsi told state TV channel M1 that more World War II bombs are in Hortobágy than in any other region of Hungary.

He warned that unexploded experimental bombs could also be in the area that are unknown to bomb disposal experts.

The dead soldiers were familiar with the type of bomb that exploded on Friday, armed forces bomb disposal expert István Ember told M1 yesterday.

Source: Hungary Around the Clock

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MTI photo: Mihádák Zoltán