Date: Tue Sep  7 12:58:37 1999
From: boone@TIMA.COM (Michael Boone)
Subject: The deadly potato gun
To: AZRKBA@asu.edu

Tuesday September 7 10:26 AM ET

Run Away! Deadly Potatoes!

OSLO (Reuters) - Police have confiscated a potentially lethal home-made cannon capable of firing potatoes up to 50 yards.

Six youths in the seaside town of Kristiansand in southern Norway used instructions on the Internet to build the weapon from everyday household objects.

``This home-made weapon is extremely dangerous both for those using it and those being fired at,'' a police spokesman told the newspaper Faedrelandsvennen.

The boys loaded potatoes down a plastic tube, where an electric ignition device from a gas-fuelled barbecue was installed.

By spraying a flammable gas into the tube and sealing the open end with a cap, potatoes were converted into projectiles with one push of the red ignition button.

Police said the cannon was capable of launching any object similar in size and weight to potatoes.