Frankfurt: World War II-era bomb successfully defused after evacuating 60,000

In a shocking incident, a huge unexploded World War II-era bomb was defused by the bomb disposal experts in the German financial capital Frankfurt, forcing the evacuation of more than 60,000 residents, the police said on Sunday.

The evacuation has been termed as biggest evacuation in the recent history of the country.

The 1.8-ton (4,000-pound) British bomb was found by the construction workers on Tuesday. The residents were immediately ordered by the officials to evacuate their homes within a 1.5-kilometre radius of the site. A number of ambulances were arranged on Sunday in view of anyone unable to independently leave the danger zone.

The high capacity bomb, also dubbed a Blockbuster, was one of the thousands dropped over Germany by the Royal Air Force during the final years of World War II to cripple the Nazi war machine and demoralise the German population.

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Authorities warned that if the bomb had exploded, the shock wave could have caused widespread damage throughout the western part of the city.

Unexploded bombs are still found regularly across Germany, even 72 years after the war ended. About 20,000 people were evacuated from the western city of Koblenz before specialists disarmed a 500-kilogramme US bomb there on Saturday.

(With PTI inputs)

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