Ambulances drive to the Eduardus Hospital in Cologne-Deutz to evacuate the hospital earlier than specialists defuse three unexploded U.S. bombs from World Warfare II that have been unearthed earlier this week in Cologne, Wednesday, June 4, 2025.
Henning Kaiser/DPA/AP
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Henning Kaiser/DPA/AP
COLOGNE, Germany — Three unexploded U.S. bombs from World Warfare II have been defused on Wednesday in Cologne after the German metropolis’s largest evacuation because the finish of the warfare.
Greater than 20,000 residents have been evacuated from the town heart earlier Wednesday after the bombs have been unearthed on Monday throughout preparatory work for highway building.
Consultants defused the bombs inside about an hour, metropolis authorities mentioned in a press release.
Even 80 years after the top of the warfare, unexploded bombs dropped throughout wartime air raids are continuously present in Germany. Generally, large-scale precautionary evacuations are wanted. The situation this time was unusually outstanding — simply throughout the Rhine River from Cologne’s historic heart.
Considerably greater evacuations have occurred in different German cities.
The evacuations included properties, 58 resorts, 9 faculties, a hospital and two nursing properties, a number of museums and workplace buildings and the Messe/Deutz prepare station. It additionally included three bridges throughout the Rhine, together with the closely used Hohenzollern railway bridge, which leads into Cologne’s central station. Transport on the Rhine additionally was suspended.
Clearance to go forward with defusing the bombs was delayed considerably as a result of one individual refused within the historic heart initially refused to depart their house, metropolis authorities mentioned.
