Karlsruhe, Germany. Oct 22 (dpa/GNA) – A World War II bomb found during construction work near a wastewater treatment plant in south-west Germany, was successfully defused on Thursday, authorities said.
The A5 motorway had to be closed between Bühl and Baden-Baden to carry out the operation, local authorities said.
Nine people and 13 horses had to be evacuated, they said. Experts were able to defuse the 250 kilo bomb, authorities reported at 8:33 pm (1833 GMT).
The operator of an excavator had discovered the unexploded ordnance on Thursday morning near a sewage treatment plant in the town of Sinzheim, located some 10 kilometres from the French border. It is not uncommon for unexploded World War II bombs to be discovered in Germany more than 80 years after the conflict ended.
A bomb found in Pforzheim, to the north-east of Sinzheim, in May, led to the evacuation of up to 30,000 people.
Around 1.35 million tons of munitions were dropped on the territory of what was then the German Reich during World War II, according to the authorities.
In the state of Baden-Württemberg, where Sinzheim is located, it is estimated that around 10 to 15% of the ordnance did not explode and remains hidden in the ground and under water.
GNA