A giant ball designed by a young student who saw death in the play ground, has the potential to save thousands of lives.

Like a giant clump of dandelion seeds, it is designed to be blown around in the wind detonating landmines in its path. Made simply of bamboo, iron and plastic, each one is relatively cheap to produce and can clear up to four bombs before being destroyed themselves.

The device is called Mine Kafon which means mine exploder. It pairs the English word mine with the Afghani word Kafon which means to make an explosion. The device will have a GPS tracking device linked to a website to show which areas have been cleared.

They are the brainchild of Massoud Hassani, who at the age of 14 fled war-torn Afghanistan, where there are more landmines than people. He travelled with smugglers to Pakistan and Russian before settling down in Holland to study at the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands.

Hassani said he had the idea for his invention after making miniature models during his childhood and from seeing people killed or wounded by mines. [Photo: CFP]