Hiroshima: An estimated 410,000 people would be killed or injured if another 16-kiloton atomic bomb like the one dropped August 6,1945 exploded on the ground here, a special city committee said today in a study report.

If the same bomb exploded in the air, the total number of dead or injured would be 271,000,said the panel of A-bomb survivors and experts. The 1945 US atomic bombs exploded in the air above Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with the death toll reaching about 140,000 in Hiroshima by the end of December that year.

"There is no way to protect citizens from (nuclear) attacks. Abolishment of nuclear arms is the only way to prevent them," the panel said in the report. The committee was created under the city's civilian protection council to counter the central government's guidelines on protection from a possible nuclear attack.

The city of Hiroshima is concerned that moves by local governments to prepare for nuclear contingencies under the guidelines may give the public the wrong impression that they could escape death or injury even in the case of a nuclear attack.

Against this backdrop, the panel studied four scenarios involving different types and strengths of bomb explosions using data from the Hiroshima bomb and US nuclear tests to come up with casualty estimates.

In the report, the panel noted that nuclear explosions on the ground would stir up far more sand, rocks and other objects, and lead to massive fallouts of radioactive materials.

Source : PTI