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Bomb find set to bring disruption to Frankfurt’s suburban rail system

Police have described a Second World War bomb found in Frankfurt on Wednesday as posing an “acute danger.” The bomb will be defused on Thursday, leading to disruption to the transport network.

Published: 22 February 2018 10:17 CET
Bomb find set to bring disruption to Frankfurt's suburban rail system
A Second World War bomb found in Frankfurt in 2013. Photo: DPA.

The 50-kilogram weapon was found during construction work in Kölner Straße near the Frankfurt Messe area in the west of the city.

Police announced that an area within a 500-metre radius of the bomb would be evacuated. All residents are expected to have evacuated the area by 7pm. Bomb specialists will then move in to defuse the Fliegerbombe on Thursday evening.

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

All public transport in the affected area will be closed down on Thursday, including the S3, S4, S5 and S6 suburban lines and the Galluswarte station, local outlet the Frankfurter Rundschau reports.

Whoever needs assistance in their evacuation from the area can call the city authorities on 069 212-111.

There are still thousands of unexploded bombs under German cities, dropped by allied air forces during the Second World War.

In September the biggest ever post-war evacuation took place in Frankfurt when a 1.8-tonne bomb was found in the city. Some 60,000 people were evacuated on that occasion.

FRANKFURT

Emergency numbers fail in several German states

Callers to the emergency numbers 110 and 112 weren’t able to reach operators Thursday morning in several German states.

Published: 11 November 2021 09:37 CET
The 112 emergency number on an ambulance.
The 112 emergency number on an ambulance. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Boris Roessler

The emergency number 110 for police and 112 for fire crews failed around the country early Thursday morning, with callers unable to reach emergency operators for urgent assistance between about 4:30 am and 5:40 am local time.

The Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Aid is looking into these outages, which were reported in states including Lower Saxony, Baden-Württemberg, and  Brandenburg, and in major cities like Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, and Frankfurt. Cologne was further affected by cuts to electricity, drinking water, and regular telephone services. Lower Saxony also saw disruptions to the internal phone networks of police and hospitals.

Emergency services are not reporting any more disturbances and people should be able to once again reach 110 and 112 around the country as normal.

Investigators are looking into the problem, but haven’t yet established a cause or any consequences that may have happened due to the outage. Provider Deutsche Telekom says they have ruled out the possibility of an attack by hackers.

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