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Journalist injured in suspected bomb attack

A journalist employed by Sweden’s TV4 was taken to hospital early Wednesday morning following a powerful explosion at the door of her Stockholm apartment.

Police believe the bombing was a deliberate attack against the journalist, and have launched an investigation into attempted murder, according to several media reports.

“We can confirm that the victim is a TV4-journalist. The person is doing well considering the circumstances, but is naturally quite shocked,” said TV4 spokesperson Gunnar Gidefeldt to the TV4 news website nyhetskanalen.se.

The explosion, which occurred shortly before 4am, blew up the door of the woman’s second storey apartment on Fatburskvarnsgatan on the island of Södermalm.

The blast also caused a fire to break out in the apartment, filling the building’s stairwell with smoke, and forcing the TV4 journalist to escape through a window. No other residents in the building were injured, however.

Gidefeldt told the Aftonbladet newspaper, there were no known threats against the woman.

“No. There is nothing as far as we know, but that is one aspect of the police’s work, so it’s foolish to speculate,” he said.

Police have begun a preliminary investigation into attempted murder, despite lingering uncertainty whether the explosion was directed specifically at the TV4 journalist.

“The explosive was so powerful that we can’t rule out that she could have been injured or killed by it,” said interim police commissioner Anders Bjäregård to nyhetskanalen.se

“We’re going to interview residents in the building as well as look into her background to see if there is any motive behind the act.”

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WWII bomb found in Frankfurt safely detonated after mass evacuation

A massive World War II bomb found in Germany's financial capital Frankfurt was safely detonated in the early hours of Thursday, the city's fire service said, allowing tens of thousands of evacuated residents to return to their homes.

WWII bomb found in Frankfurt safely detonated after mass evacuation
Experts stand on mountains of sand, which were put in place to soften the force of the explosion of the WWII bomb in Frankfurt's Nordend. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Frank Rumpenhorst

The 500-kilogram unexploded bomb was unearthed during construction work on Wednesday in the densely populated Nordend area of the city, a location firefighters said made it a “particular challenge” to remove.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper reported the ordnance had been discovered right next to a children’s playground at a depth of about two metres (6.5 feet).

READ ALSO: What you need to know about WWII bomb disposals in Germany

Its report said the controlled blast, which happened just after midnight, “sounded like thunder rumbling” and left a hole three metres deep and ten metres wide.

Firefighters said that they had covered the bomb with 40 truckloads of sand before detonating it, in order to minimise damage to the surrounding buildings.

Around 25,000 people had been asked to evacuate the area, including the occupants of a nearby community hospital’s neonatal ward.

Among residents who took shelter at a skating rink was 29-year-old Tobias, carrying his pet cat in a cage.

He said he had heard the news over a police loudspeaker and been ordered to leave his home immediately, causing a “bit of stress”.

Barbara, 77, told AFP the news was “a bit of a shock, we don’t expect that”.

However, building works in Germany regularly unearth unexploded World War II ordnance, 76 years after the conflict’s end.

Seven bombs were defused in 2020 on land near Berlin where Tesla plans to build its first factory in Europe for electric cars.  

READ ALSO: WWII bomb in Frankfurt triggers 30m high water fountain

Other bombs were also discovered last year in Frankfurt, Cologne, and Dortmund.

In Frankfurt, the discovery of a 1.4-tonne bomb in 2017 led to the removal of 65,000 people, the biggest such evacuation in Europe since 1945.

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