Germany: Hundreds evacuated after WWII bomb find

By Ayhan Simsek

BERLIN

More than 2,000 people were evacuated from Germany’s northwestern city of Dusseldorf on Tuesday morning, after the discovery of an unexploded World War II-era bomb.

German authorities evacuated a 250-meter area around the device, before special teams started their work to defuse the 250-kilogram aerial bomb.

The bomb was found on Monday during construction work in Derendorf, an industrial district close to the city center.

Around 4,400 residents living in neighboring areas were also asked to stay indoors until the bomb had been defused.

Dusseldorf’s fire department later announced that the device had been successfully defused.

It took disposal experts around 45 minutes to secure and remove the bomb.

In Germany, each year more than 5,000 bombs from the WW II-era bomb are discovered, often during construction work.