BETHEL, Vt. (AP) – The explosion of a homemade steel cannon that was used to fire wooden dowels killed a 20-year-old man who was standing about 30 feet away, Vermont State Police said.

Colby Madden died Saturday afternoon several hours after he was hit by shrapnel from the cannon, police said.

Vermont State Police Detective Sgt. Todd Illingworth called Madden’s death a tragic accident.

Madden and a number of friends were firing the cannon near the home of Randy and Pam Trask in Bethel. Pam Trask said after she heard the cannon fire a second time someone knocked on her door and told her about the explosion.

When she got to the field where the cannon had been fired, she found that Madden was unconscious and bleeding from the wrist, neck and mouth, she said.

“It is the worst thing that ever happened to any of us,” said Trask.

Illingworth said the steel pipe was about 2 inches in diameter. When the rear of the cannon exploded fragments shot out about 30 feet.

Hartford Fire Department Lt. Chris Dube said he has heard about similar cases. “The people who make them are probably not qualified to make something of that magnitude,” he said. “That’s stuff you don’t play with. It’s extremely dangerous to begin with, and even more so when it’s homemade.”

“He was just an absolutely awesome and very much loved person,” said his mother, Pamela Drury. Madden was a 2004 graduate of Whitcomb High School and lived with his family.