WWI weapon explodes and kills two in Belgium

One man is fighting for his life following the explosion

A man closes the gate to an industrial site where a World War I era shell exploded during excavation works on March 19, 2014, in Ypres, Belgium, killing two workers and severely injuring another. (AFP)

A First World War armament has exploded at an industrial site in the former Flanders battlegrounds, killing two construction workers and injuring two more.

The shell or grenade was set off when workman at the building site in Ypres disturbed it, the BBC has reported.

Local officials have said one of the injured workers remains in a critical condition.

The site has been sealed off as explosive experts examined the area.

In a nearby city, the army was completing the destruction of over 800 gas canisters.

Every year the battlefields in western Belgium throw up hundreds of armaments from the Great War, but most are destroyed without incident by a special Belgian army bomb squad.

Ypres was shelled by German forces throughout WWI, and it is thought that thousands of explosives buried in the area have still not been discovered.

The Flanders battlefields cover dozens of cities where allies clashed with German forces for most of the war.