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1.8-tonne British bomb sparks Germany’s largest evacuation since the war
Thomson Reuters
Posted: Sep 03, 2017 6:11 AM ET
Last Updated: Sep 03, 2017 6:14 AM ET
More than 60,000 people had to leave their homes in the German city of Frankfurt on Sunday as bomb disposal experts prepared to defuse a Second World War bomb discovered during construction work in the city’s leafy Westend suburb.
Families packed up bags and set off to spend the day in other parts of the city or further afield, while a steady flow of people filed into a temporary centre at Frankfurt’s trade fair site. It is Germany’s biggest evacuation since the war.
The fire service helped to evacuate around 500 elderly people from residences and care homes, after patients in intensive care were evacuated from hospital on Saturday. Hospital patients and the elderly are among those affected.
Police officers get their instructions as 60,000 people in Germany’s financial capital flee the city while experts defuse an unexploded British Second World War bomb. (Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)
Construction workers found the 1.8-tonne British bomb Tuesday. Officials have ordered residents to evacuate homes within a 1.5-kilometre radius of the site in Germany’s financial capital.
Dozens of ambulances lined up before driving to pick up anyone unable to independently leave the danger zone.
Similar operations are still common 72 years after the war ended. About 20,000 people were forced to leave the western city of Koblenz before specialists disarmed a 500-kilogram U.S. bomb Saturday.
With files from Associated Press
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