At least 13,000 evacuated after World War II bomb found

Around 13,000 people have been called to temporarily leave their homes in a district of Düsseldorf, in western Germany, after the discovery of an American bomb dating from the Second World War, the city’s firefighters said.

The American bomb which weighs one ton must be defused overnight from Monday to Tuesday. It was discovered during work in this area near the zoo, according to the firefighters’ press release.

The ground in German cities remains littered with unexploded bombs that are regularly discovered on construction sites, 78 years after the end of the Second World War.

In 2017, the discovery in Frankfurt of a 1.4 tonne bomb led to the evacuation of 65,000 people.

In December 2021, a World War II bomb exploded on a construction site near Munich train station, injuring four and disrupting rail traffic.