Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Shutterstock/Nate Hovee

Mass evacuation in Frankfurt as WWII bomb defused

The 500-kilogramme British bomb was found on a construction site in Germany’s financial capital on Thursday.

NEARLY 13,000 RESIDENTS were evacuated in Frankfurt today as experts defused an unexploded World War II bomb, local emergency services said. 

The 500-kilogramme (1,100-pound) British bomb had been found on a construction site in Germany’s financial capital on Thursday, the emergency services said.

It was successfully defused in less than two hours, the fire service announced on Twitter in the afternoon.

Some 12,800 residents had been asked to leave their homes in the morning and some local trains were diverted or delayed.

A 700-metre (half-mile) evacuation radius was set up in the west of the city centre in an area that included a number of old people’s homes, heating and internet infrastructure and facilities of the Deutsche Bahn national rail operator.

Authorities had said the work could take up to five hours, but “it can go very quickly if the detonator is positioned in such a way that the experts can get to it quickly”, a fire service spokeswoman told AFP.

Some 75 years after the war, Germany remains littered with unexploded ordnance, often uncovered during construction work.

Earlier this year, experts defused seven World War II bombs found on the future location of Tesla’s first European factory, just outside Berlin.

Sizeable bombs have also been defused in Cologne and Dortmund this year. 

In 2017, the discovery of a 1.4-tonne bomb in Frankfurt prompted the evacuation of 65,000 people — the largest such operation since the end of the war in Europe in 1945.

Author
View 17 comments
Close
17 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Optimus Prime
    Favourite Optimus Prime
    Report
    Dec 6th 2020, 7:47 PM

    We are capable of so much good and so much evil at the same time. We build life-saving machines and life-destroying ones too.

    128
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The Alchemist's Head
    Favourite The Alchemist's Head
    Report
    Dec 6th 2020, 8:11 PM

    @Optimus Prime: The Decepticons spring to mind…

    48
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Alan Biddulph
    Favourite Alan Biddulph
    Report
    Dec 6th 2020, 8:18 PM

    @Optimus Prime: Are you talking about Transformers?

    24
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute D'oh
    Favourite D'oh
    Report
    Dec 6th 2020, 8:51 PM

    @The Alchemist’s Head: LOL

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Olan Marten
    Favourite Olan Marten
    Report
    Dec 6th 2020, 9:23 PM

    @Optimus Prime: war is war, people, cities, civilisations die,its in the order of things. We will all succumb to another world order eventually.

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute William Kelly
    Favourite William Kelly
    Report
    Dec 6th 2020, 7:52 PM

    Return to sender.
    London needs to be evac’d of all civilians.
    Just leave the Brexiteers to take control.
    HM Liz can be evac’d to Balmorel with refugee status, just no hanger on court. They should reassign to public domain maintenance, ie brushes & shovels.
    BoJo & co can redeploy to man the trawlers, to make sure they catch enuf fish for export, to make up for the loss of industrial product exports.
    Little England will meet the challenges of recreating a peasant society, have no doubt, whatever ir takes.

    30
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute muirhill121
    Favourite muirhill121
    Report
    Dec 6th 2020, 8:01 PM

    @William Kelly: Lockdown tough on you, William?

    91
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tereck
    Favourite Tereck
    Report
    Dec 6th 2020, 8:02 PM

    @William Kelly: bit creepy

    45
    See 4 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The Alchemist's Head
    Favourite The Alchemist's Head
    Report
    Dec 6th 2020, 8:12 PM

    @William Kelly: That probably sounded better in your head than it looks on paper I imagine…

    58
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Gorry
    Favourite Paul Gorry
    Report
    Dec 6th 2020, 8:23 PM

    @William Kelly: are you watching repeats of game of thrones or what?

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute William Kelly
    Favourite William Kelly
    Report
    Dec 6th 2020, 8:29 PM

    @muirhill121: The calculated humour is clearly lost on you.
    There is some cold hard rreality just below that surface.
    Think it through.

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Richard Cronin
    Favourite Richard Cronin
    Report
    Dec 6th 2020, 10:06 PM

    @William Kelly: yet being able spell words correctly is lost on you, also take a trip to Flanders & ask the locals about all the German shells they hope they dig up instead of just hitting then & they just go off.

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brendan Woods
    Favourite Brendan Woods
    Report
    Dec 6th 2020, 8:29 PM

    The Brits just can’t stop giving.

    24
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Santa
    Favourite Santa
    Report
    Dec 6th 2020, 7:52 PM

    Trust Tommy to want to try and go out with a bang and show Jerry who’s boss.

    19
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
    Favourite Fiona Fitzgerald
    Report
    Dec 6th 2020, 9:33 PM

    Please tell me the UK isn’t looking for a refund for it.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Furey
    Favourite Paul Furey
    Report
    Dec 6th 2020, 10:59 PM

    @Fiona Fitzgerald: they could do a few swaps maybe?

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Rob Duggan
    Favourite Rob Duggan
    Report
    Dec 7th 2020, 8:11 AM

    Not as many German bombs failed to go off I expect?

    4
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel

 
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds