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Undetonated WW2 bomb uncovered in Norway

Road construction workers in Hedmark uncovered a bomb from World War 2 on Tuesday that the Norwegian Armed Forces said was likely used in the Germans’ attempts to attack to the fleeing Norwegian royal family.

Undetonated WW2 bomb uncovered in Norway
The road was blocked off after the discovery of the bomb. Photo: Forsvaret
“We don’t know exactly what kind of bomb it is but I think we are talking about a SC50 with 21-25 kilos of TNT in it,” Wiggo Korsvik, a staff officer at Norwegian Joint HQ, told Hamar Arbeiderblad
 
According to Korsvik, it's quite likely that the bomb was a remnant of a German offensive aimed at the royals near the start of the war. 
 
The discovery was made along Highway 3 near Åsta and a stretch of the road was shut off to traffic before responding police officers determined there was no danger of the undetonated bomb suddenly exploding. 
 
Korsvik said it was lucky for the construction workers that the bomb was German-made. 
 
“Fortunately it is German because they can take a real beating it definitely got one from the excavator. Such a thing can be scary if it had hit the bomb in the wrong place,” he said. 
 
Korsvik told Hamar Arbeiderblad that there are still hundreds of incidents every year in which bombs and ammunition from World War 2 pop up in Norway.
 

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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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