Second World War
Hundreds of bombs defused at Athens’ old airport
A new district is currently being built on the old Athens airport site. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was present at the groundbreaking ceremony for the major project. photo
© Thanassis Stavrakis/AP/dpa
For around 80 years, more than 300 bombs lay beneath the facilities at the old airport in the Greek capital. Now they are defused. It is unclear whether there are others.
“We only live by chance,” said Giannis Konstantatos, mayor of the region, on Greek radio. For eight decades, airport facilities stood above and next to the camp and, after its closure, schools, kindergartens and, during the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, sports facilities.
According to the mayor, the German Air Force had stored the bombs in the old airport on the coast of Athens during the occupation of Greece (1941-1944) and left them behind when hastily leaving southeastern Europe because of the Red Army’s advance in the Balkans. “The bombs lay next to our houses for 80 years,” he told the Kathimerini newspaper.
A huge new district is currently being built on the approximately 620 hectare airport site on the Athens coast. New hotels and numerous luxury residential complexes are being built. The work is being made more difficult because of the risk of more bombs underground, Greek media reported.