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Ferry evacuated in Stockholm harbour

A ferry moored at Stockholm's Frihamnen harbour received a bomb threat around midday on Friday, prompting a swift evacuation of the vessel.

Published: 18 May 2012 14:08 CEST
Ferry evacuated in Stockholm harbour

Police later determined the threat was a hoax.

“The ferry has been evacuated and we have staff on site to evaluate the situation,” said Towe Hägg of the Stockholm police to news agency TT soon after the alarm came through.

The ferry, the Princess Anastasia, is owned by the St. Peter line shipping company, which operates between Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Tallinn and Helsinki.

Police were alerted about the threat just after midday. Officers were quickly on the scene to evaluate the seriousness of the situation.

According to daily Aftonbladet, the threat came from an English-speaking man who said that the boat would blow up.

The threat allegedly was received to the shipping company’s St. Petersburg office.

The ferry staff aboard the Anastasia told police that the number of passengers who were taken off the evacuated boat numbered between 100 and 200.

Around 1.30pm the officer in charge decided that the threat wasn’t serious and that the passengers could re-enter the ferry.

TT/Rebecca Martin

twitter.com/thelocalsweden

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BOMB

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.

Published: 20 May 2021 09:03 CEST
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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