CABLE, Ohio, June 28 (UPI) -- Doctors in Ohio treated three men Monday who were injured when a metallic potato gun exploded, the Dayton Daily News reported.
The Saturday night blast killed Kyle Thompson, 21, of Union County, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Three other men injured in the explosion remained hospitalized Monday.
"They were playing with this so-called potato gun, which is essentially a pipe bomb," Champaign County Coroner Josh Richards said. "The metallic tubing exploded, essentially causing shrapnel to go flying everywhere."
The coroner's office will not perform an autopsy on Thompson's body because the cause of death was so evident, Richards said.
Potato guns, often made with PVC pipe and using hair spray as a propellant, are legal unless they build up a certain amount of pressure, said David Hawkins, a captain with the Allen Township Fire Department.
Then they can become a "dangerous ordinance," he said.
