Alla Bama/Alamy
Anthony Battersby
Bath, UK
In the 1970s, I worked in Beirut in Lebanon. My boss was walking down Rue Hamra, the main street in West Beirut, with his wife when he suddenly collapsed. He had been struck by a falling bullet. It entered his body between his neck and collarbone and exited just above his kidneys.
Advertisement
He was incredibly lucky. The bullet was tumbling and so made a large entry wound and a larger exit wound, but it didn’t hit any vital organs on the way through.
It had almost certainly been fired from some celebration up in the mountains behind the city.
James Davenport
Bath, UK
A friend of mine was hit on the head by a branch severed from a tree by bullets fired upwards at a celebration in Crete.
Fortunately, the branch was relatively small, and the consequences were just shock and a headache.
Glenn Pickard
Baldwin Park, California, US
From 1974 to 2006, I worked in commercial roofing in California. I picked up or extracted more than 900 bullets from the roofs of warehouses, factories and residential building that I inspected.
These bullets were presumably the result of guns being fired into the air, but the damage to the roofs was usually minimal.
To answer this question – or ask a new one – email lastword@newscientist.com.
Questions should be scientific enquiries about everyday phenomena, and both questions and answers should be concise. We reserve the right to edit items for clarity and style. Please include a postal address, daytime telephone number and email address.
New Scientist Ltd retains total editorial control over the published content and reserves all rights to reuse question and answer material that has been submitted by readers in any medium or in any format.
