Massive British WWII Bomb Defused in Germany

A massive British World War II-era bomb that triggered the evacuation of about half of the 107,000 residents of Germany’s western city of Koblenz was successfully defused Sunday, authorities said. It was one of Germany’s biggest bomb-related evacuations since the war ended with some 2,500 police officers, firefighters and paramedics on duty across the city to secure the operation.

Experts successfully defused the British 1.8 ton bomb and a 275-pound U.S. bomb that had been discovered last month after the Rhine river’s water level fell significantly due to a prolonged lack of rain, said Heiko Breitbarth, a spokesman for Koblenz’s firefighters. Among those ordered to evacuate were seven nursing homes, two hospitals and a prison with some 200 inmates.

Finding unexploded bombs dropped by the Allies over Germany during World War II is common over 65 years after the war’s end. The explosives are usually defused or detonated by experts without causing injuries.

The residents of Koblenz which was heavily bombed during World War II are used to bomb scares. City officials said 28 smaller war bombs had been found there since 1999, the German news agency dapd reported. Such bombs are often found during construction work or by farmers plowing their fields.


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