Germany: 54,000 Residents Evacuated from Town to Defuse Massive WWII bomb
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Explosives experts on Sunday defused a large World War II aerial bomb in the southern German city of Augsburg — clearing the way for thousands of evacuated residents to return to their Christmas celebrations at home.
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City police tweeted that they had "good news at
Christmas" just before 7 p.m. local time Sunday. They had earlier been
unable to say how long residents would have to stay away.
Some 32,000 households with 54,000 residents in the city's
historic central district were forced to leave by 10 a.m. Christmas morning so
experts could handle the bomb.
Explosives experts have defused a large second world war
bomb in the German city of Augsburg, clearing the way for thousands of
evacuated residents to return and hold their Christmas celebrations at home.
City police tweeted that they had “good news at Christmas”
just before 7pm local time (18.00 GMT). Before that, they had been unable to
say how long residents would have to stay away due to the sensitive explosives
work being done.
They had to clean seven decades of muck off the bomb so they
could find and disable its three detonators. The munition’s large size — 1.8
tons — suggested it was a so-called blockbuster of the type dropped by British
forces, with the aim of blowing surrounding buildings apart so that
accompanying incendiary bombs could start fires more easily.
The bomb was uncovered last week during construction work in
the city’s historic central district. Police said Christmas Day was the best
time to defuse it because there was less traffic and it was more likely that
people could stay with relatives.
Police rang doorbells and used vans with loudspeakers to
urge procrastinators to leave ahead of a 10 a.m. deadline. Schools and sports
facilities were opened as shelters but most people appeared to have left on
Christmas Eve.
Finding Second World War bombs is not unusual in Germany.
Much of Augsburg’s historic centre was destroyed on Feb. 25-26, 1944, when
hundreds of British and U.S. bombers attacked the city.
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