About 1,400 firearms and 1,200 swords believed to be from the period of World War II were discovered buried at an elementary school in western Tokyo, city officials said Monday.

Grenades, bullets and cannonballs were also found one to two meters underneath the grounds of the Tanashi Elementary School in the city of Nishitokyo.

(Cache of weapons discovered at Tanashi Elementary School)
[Photo courtesy of Nishitokyo]

The discovery of the cache of weapons came during excavation work that began in July linked to the construction of a building, the officials said.

Cooperating with police and the Self-Defense Forces, the city on the outskirts of the capital removed the weapons from the school grounds, they said, adding they were possibly discarded after the end of the war in 1945.

In Japan, unexploded bombs and weapons are still sometimes found, even in residential areas. But it is rare for weapons used by the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Army to be recovered in such a large quantity at one time.