Hattingen: Bomb explodes more than 60 years on
It is not uncommon to find unexploded bombs during construction work here in Germany. A huge portion of Allied bombing in World War II failed to explode and continues to live as a “ticking” legacy. It is rare for a week to pass in this country without some area being cleared while a bomb is removed. Almost all disposals go without incident.
Not so this morning in Hattingen, which lies in the State of Nordrhein Westphalen: a bucket excavator struck a still functioning 500lb bomb, sending debris flying as far as a few hundred feet, and smashing many windows in the vicinity.
It is almost amazing no-one was killed or seriously hurt. 17 victims were accounted for, most of them suffering from explosion trauma.
WAZ has some pictures, and here is where it all happened.
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Welcome to Irakli West's personal pages on the Web. I am Danish, live close to Munich in Germany, and run FWnetz, an online magazine and training resource for firefighters. I am also a digital strategy consultant.
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