3 World War II bombs deactivated in a German city

Three American bombs not exploited from World War II were deactivated Wednesday in Colonia after the largest evacuation in the German city since the end of the war.

The bombs were discovered on Monday during the preparatory work for road construction. The city authorities said that the unbelievable orchestrals were two American bombs of 20 tons and an American bomb of 10 tons, each with impact fuses.

More than 20,000 residents were evacuated on Wednesday from the city center. The experts deactivated the bombs in approximately an hour, said the city authorities in a statement.

Even 80 years after the end of the war, unleashed bombs that fall during air attacks in war are frequently in Germany. Sometimes, large -scale precautionary evacuations are needed. The location this time was unusually prominent, just on the other side of the Rin River from the Historic Center of Colonia.

There have been significantly greater evacuations in other German cities.

The evacuations included households, 58 hotels, nine schools, a hospital and two elderly homes, several museums and office buildings and the Messe/Deutz train station. It also included three bridges through the RIN, including the Hohenzolern railway bridge, which leads to the Central Station of Colonia. The shipment in the RIN was also suspended.

The authorization to move forward with the deactivation of the bombs was a bit delayed because a person in the historic center initially refused to leave his home, city authorities said.

Bombas from World War II have been discovered in battlefields and cities where the fight took place, often decades after the war ended. In March, a World War II bomb It was found Near the roads of the Gare du Nord station in Paris. In February, more than 170 bombs were found Near a children’s courtyard in the north of England. And in October 2024, a World War II bomb exploited In a Japanese airport.

• Second World War
• Threat of bombs
• Germany