A hospital in Bonn was forced to move hundreds of patients, including those seriously ill with the coronavirus, so the explosive could be defused. More than a thousand nearby residents were also evacuated.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F. Heyder
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Two hundred patients at a hospital in western Germany were evacuated on Thursday after a huge World War II bomb had been found on the grounds.
The 227-kilogram (500-pound) aerial explosive was discovered during construction work at the Bonn University Clinic a day earlier.
Among the intensive care patients, who had to be evacuated, there were 11 people who are critically ill with COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
Most of the patients were moved to other parts of the hospital, but some were transferred to other hospitals. Some 150 emergency services personnel were roped in to help.
Local authorities also ordered 1,200 local residents to evacuate. Teams of workers visited people door to door asking those who are currently under German lockdown measures to stem the spread of the virus, to temporarily vacate their properties.
A 500-meter area around the hospital was sealed off for several hours.
The bomb was successfully diffused on Thursday afternoon.
Many decades after the World War II ended, unexploded bombs are still found across Germany.
Image: picture-alliance/AP/U.S. Strategic Air 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.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Grundmann
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.
Image: picture-alliance/Everett Collection
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.
Image: Reuters/H. Hanschke
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.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Puchner
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.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/U. Zucchi
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.
Image: Markus Siefer
Thousands affected by mass evacuations
A discovery of a unexploded bomb in a German city usually triggers a large-scale evacuation. The picture above shows the emergency response after 50,000 residents in the northwestern city of Hanover were forced to leave their homes in 2017. Many other evacuation efforts followed in the years since.
