THE horrors of war are boosting a Kent-based bomb clearance business that has just won another deal in Lebanon.

Bactec International, founded 16 years ago by ex-Royal Engineer Guy Lucas in Strood, works in trouble spots across the world.

Now it will be clearing munitions from South Lebanon for a further year after winning a prestigious UN contract.

The company, based on the Medway City Estate, beat a number of rivals to secure the contract from the United Nations Office of Project Services (UNOPS) in a competitive tender.

Mr Lucas, the managing director, said: "I’m very pleased. We put in a very competitive price and technically we were extremely well placed."

Around 200 brave experts are already working in Lebanon where Bactec has operated since 2001, clearing bombs, missiles, sub-munitions and cluster bombs, booby traps and land mines.

Demand for its services soared after the war between Israeli and Hezbollah militants across the Israel - Lebanon border.

Around one million pieces failed to explode during the 2006 conflict and Bactec teams have been working at 960 sites ever since.

Some munitions rolled to the floors of steep-sided wadis, where rain washed soil from the surrounding slopes to cover them.

In the rainy season vegetation grows quickly and prevents the visual searching of areas. Anti-personnel mines may be located amid the rocky slopes of the jebels.

Remnants of cluster bombs can be found in the acres of orange plantations and olive groves trees, often hidden among vegetation or hanging from branches.

Bactec experts have been clearing bombs from the paths to people’s homes and across the valuable olive groves.

Mr Lucas says that some workers have been too eager to harvest the crop that they have entered the grove before clearance and paid for their impatience with their lives.

Children often seem oblivious to the threat and casually bring unexploded ordnance into Bactec’s Lebanese office.

Bactec uses local staff and pays them above the going pay rate. "We train them, we equip them, we look after them and we insure them," says Mr Lucas. "And there’s a lot of security and confidence in what we do."

He stresses that satisfaction comes from knowing that areas are safe for children to play after Bactec has done its work. "It is most satisfying to give back to the community and just seeing kiddies playing safely."