WWII bomb forces thousands from homes in Hamburg

Hamburg – About 4 000 residents of the northern German city of Hamburg had to move to safety on Wednesday as workers defused a WWII-era bomb discovered in the midst of a residential area.

Those who had to be moved to safety included all the residents of a home for the elderly.

Workers said the effort took longer than necessary because they had to break off the defusing procedure three separate times when civilians wandered into the danger zone.

The 500kg bomb, which appears to have been dropped by British forces during WWII, was discovered on Tuesday night at a depth of about 3m.

Fire crews said defusing the bomb would be difficult, given the high number of residences nearby.

Unexploded WWII-era bombs are routinely discovered across Germany to this day, often leading to disruptions as people are cleared away for safety. Estimates say that between 12 and 13% of the approximately 107 000 bombs dropped on Germany during the war remain undetonated.

Usually the bombs are detonated safely, though the 2012 controlled detonation of such a bomb in Munich’s city centre set off fires that gutted a shop, damaged the roofs of nearby apartments, and smashed windows.