Many shipments affected
Bomb found in Cologne – RTL has to leave its broadcasting center
RTL’s broadcasting center is located directly on the banks of the Rhine in Cologne
© Thomas Robbin / Imagebroker / Picture Alliance
Major rescheduling at RTL in Cologne. After a World War II bomb was found on the banks of the Rhine, employees had to leave the station building. Several television programs also have to run differently than planned. The dud has now been defused.
Thousands of people in Cologne have to leave their homes and jobs this Wednesday because of an unexploded bomb from the Second World War. The broadcasting center is also located in the evacuation area RTL – the planned defusing has a significant impact on the production of the private broadcaster’s television programs. Late in the afternoon the news came: the bomb had been defused.
RTL affected by bomb discovery in Cologne
According to the Cologne city administration, the American ten hundredweight bomb was discovered during excavation work on the Kennedyufer in the Deutz district. “The bomb must be defused today. To do this, the danger area must be cordoned off and evacuated,” the city said. The evacuation radius was set at 500 meters around the location where the bomb was found. It was not initially clear when the defusing of the unexploded bomb would begin.
In addition to around 100 residents in the area, thousands of employees of local companies are primarily affected. This also includes RTL, which has several thousand employees in Cologne and produces numerous programs live in the broadcasting complex on the banks of the Rhine.
There will be challenges for those responsible at the Cologne private broadcaster on Wednesday, because the building must be evacuated from 2 p.m. – of all employees. During this time the lunchtime magazine “Point 12” runs. “We are therefore moving our studio outside without further ado and will continue broadcasting ‘Point 12’ and possibly also the later current programs ‘Explosiv’ and ‘Exclusiv’ (…) live from outside the evacuation zone,” said RTL News boss Martin Gradl. “RTL Aktuell” at 6:45 p.m. would be broadcast from the Berlin capital studio if the evacuation measures were not completed by then.
The news channel ntv, which also belongs to RTL, should also broadcast from a different location. The entire broadcast direction is handled from Berlin. So-called emergency tapes with recorded programs in the event of a disruption are available at all channels in the media group (including Vox, RTL Zwei).
The Hohenzollern Bridge over the Rhine is also within the evacuation radius – so train traffic around Cologne is also affected. The effects of the route closure are likely to be felt nationwide. Several streets in the cathedral city will also be closed, and bus routes will also be affected.
In the afternoon, the city announced that the World War II bomb had been defused. It was a “demanding and unusual mission”. The ten hundredweight bomb was placed on a pontoon – a floating island – by an excavator shovel. The explosive ordnance disposal service then defused it there.
Sources: city Cologne, German railway, RTL
Note: This article was updated after the bomb was defused.
Transparency note: The star is part of RTL Deutschland.