Part of downtown Dresden in eastern Germany was evacuated on Thursday morning as bomb disposal units prepared to remove a World War II ordinance found near the Carola Bridge. The evacuation order affects some 10,000 people who live and work in the historic Old City district.

A significant portion of the bridge, a key crossing for car and tram traffic across the Elbe River, collapsed in the early morning on September 11, 2024.

As repair work began on the bridge, workers discovered the bomb.

4,000 bombs dropped on Dresden

This was the second time the bridge, originally built in 1895, had been partially destroyed. The German army purposely blew it up in May 1945 to halt the Soviet advance. The current bridge was built between 1967 and 1971.

World War II ordinances are regularly discovered in the ground during construction and maintenance work in major German cities. Dresden was the site of several bombing campaigns, including the infamous February 1945 air raids that saw the Allies drop 4,000 bombs, leaving the city center in ruins and killing 25,000 people.

es/lo (AFP, dpa)