In the heart of Dresden, an eastern German city, thousands of individuals were evacuated on Wednesday due to the discovery of an unexploded World War II bomb nestled near one of the bridges traversing the Elbe River. The bomb, a relic of a bygone era, was found during clearance operations at the Carola Bridge, as reported by the Polizei Sachsen, the law enforcement body overseeing the Saxony region in eastern Germany.
The British-made bomb, weighing in at 550 pounds, was equipped with a detonator and had to be defused on-site. The authorities planned for an evacuation radius of approximately 1,000 meters around the bomb site for the safety of the city’s inhabitants.
According to reliable sources, the bomb has been successfully defused and is slated for transport to a disposal site located northwest of the city. The evacuation area was set to be cleared by 9 a.m. local time, or 3 a.m. ET on Wednesday, as stated by the police. “The emergency services are now starting to control the restricted area,” the police added, with defusing operations set to commence once the area was confirmed to be void of people.
Unexploded World War II-era munitions are often unearthed in major cities across Germany, a haunting legacy of the bombing campaigns waged against the country by Allied forces during the conflict. Just last June, approximately 20,000 individuals were evacuated from the western German city of Cologne following the discovery of three unexploded World War II bombs. The evacuation in Cologne holds the record for being the largest since the end of the conflict.
This raises important questions about the lingering effects of war and underscores the significance of maintaining public safety in the face of historical remnants.
