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Rusty metal by the hiking trail? Never touch, mark, report: 117

You are on a mountain hike, a little off the marked path, and next to a rock lies a rusty, pointed piece of metal. It looks old. It looks harmless. It may be neither.

This is not a war zone. But Swiss army officials say former military training grounds can still hold unexploded shells, and most reports come from the cantons of Bern, Graubünden and Valais, which are also popular hiking areas.

Three steps: never touch, mark, report

The Swiss Armed Forces put the whole rule in three words: “nie berühren – markieren – melden” (never touch, mark, report).

  1. Never touch. Do not touch or move the object, and do not take it with you. The army says such items must not be touched or taken along under any circumstances.
  2. Mark the place so that other people can see it and are warned.
  3. Report it at once. Call the police on 117, or report it through the army's “Blindgänger” app.

The army asks people to report suspicious objects immediately, and pays up to CHF 100 for each reported and confirmed item of potentially especially dangerous ammunition. In 2025 it received 855 reports, down from 1,037 the year before.

Why old does not mean safe

A dud (Blindgänger) is, in the words of UNMAS, a weapon that “fail[ed] to detonate as designed but remain[s] volatile and can kill if touched or moved”. The ICRC says such munitions may go off at an unpredictable time, and that between about 1 and 40 per cent of munitions fail to explode as intended, depending on age, storage, soil and weather.

The Swiss Armed Forces add that old ammunition can stay dangerous for years. Age does not make it safe.

What it can look like

The ICRC lists explosive remnants of war: artillery shells, mortar shells, grenades, rockets, missiles and cluster munitions that did not explode or were left behind unused. If something metal looks like any of these, treat it as one.

The numbers

The Federal Office of Communications lists these emergency numbers as free of charge:

  • 117: police (the number the army gives for duds)
  • 112: European emergency number
  • 118: fire
  • 144: medical emergencies

The one rule

Never touch. Mark. Report: 117.

These rules are what specialists call explosive ordnance risk education: activities that, in the words of the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), “seek to reduce the risk of injury from explosive ordnance”.

Sources

Source: https://armsma.org/en/insights/unexploded-ordnance-switzerland — © ARMSMA. Reproduced with permission of ARMSMA.

ARMSMA is not a professional educational institution. This material is provided for general awareness only and does not replace professional training, medical advice or official emergency instructions. ARMSMA accepts no liability for reliance on this content.

Source: https://armsma.org/en/insights/unexploded-ordnance-switzerland — © ARMSMA. Reproduced with permission of ARMSMA. — ARMSMA is not a professional educational institution. This material is provided for general awareness only and does not replace professional training, medical advice or official emergency instructions. ARMSMA accepts no liability for reliance on this content.