3 The Bombs of the Second World War are defused in the largest post-war evacuation of a German city: NPR
Ambulances go to Eduardus Hospital in Cologne-Deutz to evacuate the hospital before specialists defuse three non-exploded American bombs from the Second World War who were discovered earlier this week in Cologne, Wednesday, June 4, 2025.
Henning Kaiser / DPA / AP
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Henning Kaiser / DPA / AP
Cologne, Germany – Three American bombs not exploded from the Second World War were defused Wednesday in Cologne after the largest evacuation of the German city since the end of the war.
More than 20,000 residents were evacuated from the city center earlier Wednesday after the bombs were determined on Monday during preparatory work for the construction of roads.
Experts defused the bombs in less than an hour, the city authorities said in a statement.
Even 80 years after the end of the war, unploded bombs have dropped during the air raids in wartime are frequently found in Germany. Sometimes, large -scale precautionary evacuations are necessary. This time, the location was unusually prominent – just opposite the Rhine river of the historic center of Cologne.
Significantly greater evacuations have occurred in other German cities.
The evacuations included houses, 58 hotels, nine schools, a hospital and two nursing homes, several museums and office buildings and the Messe / Deutz station. It also included three bridges across the Rhine, including the highly used Hohenzollern railway bridge, which leads to Cologne central station. The shipment to the Rhine was also suspended.
The authorization to move forward with defusing the bombs was somewhat delayed because a person refused in the historic center initially refused to leave their home, the city authorities said.
