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EARNINGS

Fewer visitors to Frankfurt car show amid global crisis

The crisis in the global automotive industry appears to have affected the Frankfurt motor show which closed Sunday with visitor numbers down some 150,000 this year, Germany's VDA auto federation said.

Published: 27 September 2009 17:16 CEST
Fewer visitors to Frankfurt car show amid global crisis
Photo: DPA

Around 850,000 people attended the 10-day exhibition, down from one million during the previous show two years ago, with the number of exhibitors also down by 30 percent to 750 as several Asian brands stayed away.

However, VDA head Matthias Wissmann stressed that the number of visitors was better than the 750,000 expected and said the show had “completely surpassed all our expectations.”

“It makes little sense to compare this year’s show with 2007, which took place at a time of economic prosperity. The conditions have totally changed,” added Wissmann.

He said the “enthusiasm for cars is, as before, very high” and that the halls were often overflowing with visitors eager to see the 100 world premieres exhibited at the show.

Wissmann also appeared bullish about the future for the industry despite the crisis. “Our survey suggested that one in four visitors intends to buy a car in the next six months,” he said.

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MUNICH

Four injured as WWII bomb explodes near Munich train station

Four people were injured, one of them seriously, when a World War II bomb exploded at a building site near Munich's main train station on Wednesday, emergency services said.

Published: 1 December 2021 16:41 CET
Smoke rises after the WWII bomb exploded on a building site in Munich.
Smoke rises after the WWII bomb exploded on a building site in Munich. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Privat

Construction workers had been drilling into the ground when the bomb exploded, a spokesman for the fire department said in a statement.

The blast was heard several kilometres away and scattered debris hundreds of metres, according to local media reports.

Images showed a plume of smoke rising directly next to the train tracks.

Bavaria interior minister Joachim Herrmann told Bild that the whole area was being searched.

Deutsche Bahn suspended its services on the affected lines in the afternoon.

Although trains started up again from 3pm, the rail operator said there would still be delays and cancellations to long-distance and local travel in the Munich area until evening. 

According to the fire service, the explosion happened near a bridge that must be passed by all trains travelling to or from the station.

The exact cause of the explosion is unclear, police said. So far, there are no indications of a criminal act.

WWII bombs are common in Germany

Some 75 years after the war, Germany remains littered with unexploded ordnance, often uncovered during construction work.

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

However, most bombs are defused by experts before they explode.

Last year, seven World War II bombs were found on the future location of Tesla’s first European factory, just outside Berlin.

Sizeable bombs were also defused in Cologne and Dortmund last year.

In 2017, the discovery of a 1.4-tonne bomb in Frankfurt prompted the evacuation of 65,000 people — the largest such operation since the end of the war in Europe in 1945.

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