Dusseldorf, Germany, has asked its 13,000 residents to evacuate their homes temporarily after a World War II-era bomb was found, according to German news outlet Deutsche Welle (DW). On August 7-8, the police and bomb squad carried out an operation to dispose of an unexploded one-tonne shell that had been discovered.
According to the outlet, the bomb was found during working hours near the city zoo. Authorities in Dusseldorf asked all residents within a 500-meter radius of the bomb’s location to evacuate. During the disposal operation, even roads within the evacuation zone were temporarily closed.
The reports said that several people carried their pets with them as they left their houses. However, it is unknown when the disposal was completed and restrictions lifted.
Earlier, a 1.4-ton bomb was found in Frankfurt in 2017, forcing the evacuation of 65,000 people. A bomb from the Second World War exploded in December 2021 at a building site close to Munich station. The explosion caused injuries to four persons.
Between 1940 and 1945, the US and British air forces dropped 2.7 million tons of bombs on Europe, half of which were on Germany, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
