3 World War II bombs are defused in a German city’s biggest postwar evacuation
COLOGNE, Germany — Three unexploded U.S. bombs from World War II were defused on Wednesday in Cologne after the German city’s biggest evacuation since the end of the war.
More than 20,000 residents were evacuated from the city center earlier Wednesday after the bombs were unearthed on Monday during preparatory work for road construction.
Experts defused the bombs within about an hour, city authorities said in a statement.
Even 80 years after the end of the war, unexploded bombs dropped during wartime air raids are frequently found in Germany. Sometimes, large-scale precautionary evacuations are needed. The location this time was unusually prominent — just across the Rhine River from Cologne’s historic center.
Significantly bigger evacuations have occurred in other German cities.
The evacuations included homes, 58 hotels, nine schools, a hospital and two nursing homes, several museums and office buildings and the Messe/Deutz train station. It also included three bridges across the Rhine, including the heavily used Hohenzollern railway bridge, which leads into Cologne’s central station. Shipping on the Rhine also was suspended.
Clearance to go ahead with defusing the bombs was delayed somewhat because one person refused in the historic center initially refused to leave their home, city authorities said.
Rahm Emanuel steers a course between ‘monopolists’ and ‘Marxists’
NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with longtime Democrat Rahm Emanuel about politics in the Trump era.
Trump vs. U.S. allies: How will this end?
The president has backed off his threat to take Greenland by force. But his highly inflammatory remarks in Switzerland rattled U.S. allies and threatened to tear down the pillars of the world order.
Jack Smith to defend Trump investigations to House Republicans
Jack Smith's appearance before the House Judiciary Committee marks the first open testimony about his work after presiding over two federal criminal indictments of President Trump.
Some voters who backed Trump say ICE is going ‘too far’
A new focus group of Biden-to-Trump voters weighs in on immigration operations and Trump's foreign affairs leadership on Greenland and Venezuela.
The ICE surge is fueling fear and anxiety among Twin Cities children
Some families aren't leaving their homes as aggressive ICE operations continue in Minnesota, leaving their children confined and stressed. Across the Twin Cities, kids are anxious and afraid.
Israeli fire strikes journalists and children in Gaza
Israeli forces on Wednesday killed at least 11 Palestinians in Gaza, including two boys, three journalists and a woman, hospitals said, on one of the enclave 's deadliest days since the ceasefire took effect.
