Status: 07/12/2022 11:34 p.m
The evacuation took much longer than planned. The five-hundredweight bomb was discovered during exploratory work on a construction site in the Osnabrück district of Dodesheide.
The area within a kilometer radius of the site was evacuated. Residents should have left the area by 6 p.m., the defusing was planned for 9 p.m. At 11 p.m., the city said people were still being found in the evacuation area. “As long as you haven’t left it, you can’t start defusing it,” the city of Osnabrück wrote on Twitter. A helicopter flew over the area, the police checked houses and apartments. Shortly before 11:30 p.m., the city announced that it was safe. The demolition expert can now go to the bomb. But examining the detonator alone could take up to an hour.
Nobody came in for a long time
The area had been cordoned off three hours earlier. “The outer ring of barriers is now in place, so no one can enter the evacuation area,” the city said at 8:10 p.m. “The evacuation continues. The sooner everyone leaves the area, the faster they can return to their homes.” According to the city, the bomb is an American five-hundredweight bomb from World War II. The city had previously reported a ten-hundredweight bomb.
Citizen hotline and evacuation center set up
5,400 people from 2,300 households were affected. Ambulance transport was organized for bedridden people. According to the city, a decision as to whether the bomb could be defuse or whether it had to be detonated in a controlled manner could only be decided once all residents had left the endangered area. An evacuation center is available for those affected in the Sonnenhügel school center. A citizen telephone is under the Telephone number (0541) 323 44 90 switched.
Further information
