Bomb disposal specialists successfully deactivated a World War II in western Germany on Sunday.

The 1.8 ton British bomb was found in the small city of Paderborn, about 370 kilometers (230 miles) southwest of Berlin. More than 26,000 people within a 1.5 km radius of the bomb were forced to evacuate their homes Sunday so the bomb disposal could proceed.

Two hospitals and several homes for the elderly, a university and parts of the historic old town were part of the forced evacuation zone. Emergency shelters were set up, and more than 1,000 volunteers helped emergency services organize the evacuation.

German Red Cross ambulance crews helped people out of the area

The evacuation was originally to be completed by noon local time (1000 UTC) but was delayed until early afternoon as it took longer than expected for people to be moved from their homes.

According to the originally planned timing of the operation, people are due to return home by early evening.

The bomb, which was found in a garden last month during construction work was found only 80 centimeters (31.5 inches) below the surface.

The garden in Paderborn where the bomb was found

Read more: German town lives with lethal legacy of World War II

Ongoing struggle

Unexploded bombs from World War II are still regularly discovered in Germany even more than 70 years after the conflict ended, with US and British air forces estimated to have dropped more than a million tons of bombs on the country between 1940 and 1945 in the fight against the Nazi regime.

In September last year, more than 70,000 people in the financial hub of Frankfurt were forced to leave their homes to allow a particularly large bomb to be disposed of.

Eleven German bomb disposal experts have been killed in the course of their work since 2000.

Unexploded ordnance in Germany - a legacy of the Allied Forces What is unexploded ordnance? Unexploded ordnance (UXO or sometimes also abbreviated to UO), unexploded bombs (UXBs), or explosive remnants of war (ERW) are explosive weapons such as bombs, shells, grenades, land mines, naval mines and cluster munitions that did not explode when they were deployed. Unexploded ordnance still poses the risk of detonation, even decades after they were used or discarded.

Unexploded ordnance in Germany - a legacy of the Allied Forces Why does Germany have a bomb problem? Between 1940 and 1945, US and British forces dropped 2.7 million tons of bombs on Europe. Half of those bombs targeted Germany. Experts estimate that close to a quarter of a million bombs did not explode due to technical faults. Thousands of these bombs are still hidden underground, sometimes a few meters down and sometimes just below the surface.

Unexploded ordnance in Germany - a legacy of the Allied Forces How big is the issue? The industrial Ruhr area and the Lower Rhine region were heavily bombed, as were the cities of Dresden, Hamburg and Hanover. So this is where most of the unexploded ordnance is found. Bombs are usually unearthed during construction work or are discovered during the examination of historical aerial images. Experts say it could still take decades to clear all of the remaining unexploded ordnance.

Unexploded ordnance in Germany - a legacy of the Allied Forces What happens when an unexploded bomb is found? When confronted with the discovery of an UXO, UO or a UXB, bomb disposal experts have to decide whether to defuse it or to carry out a controlled explosion. Many have lost their lives on the job. German authorities are under pressure to remove unexploded ordnance from populated areas. Experts argue that the bombs are becoming more dangerous as time goes by due to material fatigue.

Unexploded ordnance in Germany - a legacy of the Allied Forces How many bomb disposal experts have died? Eleven bomb technicians have been killed in Germany since 2000, including three who died in a single explosion while trying to defuse a 1,000-pound bomb on the site of a popular flea market in Göttingen in 2010.

Unexploded ordnance in Germany - a legacy of the Allied Forces Which was the biggest evacuation? A 1.8-ton bomb dropped by Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) was found in the city center of Augsburg on December 20, 2016. The find prompted a large-scale bomb disposal operation and consequently the evacuation of over 54,000 people on December 25. To date, this remains the biggest evacuation for the removal of World War II unexploded ordnance in Germany.

Unexploded ordnance in Germany - a legacy of the Allied Forces What’s the latest? Authorities conducted another big bomb disposal operation in May 2017, with 50,000 residents in the northwestern city of Hanover forced to evacuate their homes. Thirteen unexploded ordnances from the 1940s were removed. Hanover was a frequent target of Allied bombing in the latter years of the war. On October 9, 1943, some 261,000 bombs were dropped on the city. Author: Aasim Saleem



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