detonate

Anti-personnel landmines are explosives which are often concealed on the ground and designed to detonate when people step over or near them.

Once the battery runs out, they will not detonate.

The six replacement forwards – an Anglo-Saxon answer to South Africa’s bomb squad – failed to detonate, falling foul of Gardner at scrums and breakdown.

Mr Hadush’s officers have removed the fuses from some of the weapons they have found, but even so he says extreme heat or accidental fire could detonate them.

He said explosions had been caused by butterfly mines - small, anti-personnel mines which can glide to the ground and detonate later on contact - which are coated with leaves to camouflage them.