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Suspected WWII bomb blast causes crater in German field

A bomb likely dating to World War II exploded in a field in western Germany leaving a huge crater but no injuries, police said Monday.

Published: 24 June 2019 15:03 CEST

Suspected WWII bomb blast causes crater in German field

The crater in the Hessian field after the bomb had exploded. Photo: DPA

The explosion left a 10-metre wide and four-metre deep hole after residents in Limburg, in Hesse, heard a loud noise and felt the earth shake at 3:52 am on Sunday morning. No one was injured.

“The crater was examined on Monday by an explosive ordnance clearance service to find possible fragments,” a police spokesman told AFP.

“The area was used for target practice during the Second World War,” he added.

A bomb disposal service spokesman said it was “highly possible” that a WWII ordnance was involved.

A local government spokesman in the nearby city of Darmstadt told German daily Bild it was believed the bomb had a chemical-based delayed timer which could have finally eroded.

“We are lucky that the bomb exploded in a field,” he said. “Many bombs were dropped over cities and airports.”

Nearly 75 years after the end of war, Germany remains littered with unexploded ordnance, a legacy of the Allied bombing campaign against Nazi Germany.

However, most of the bombs found are detonated before they can cause an explosion.

Earlier this month, a 100-kilo US bomb from the war, discovered during building work near a shopping complex, was defused in central Berlin after the evacuation of around 3,000 people.

According to experts, 10 percent of the millions of bombs dropped on Germany during the conflict did not explode.

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

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Worldwide damage from natural disasters drops

Swiss Re headquarters in Zurich. Photo: Swiss Re

The figure released by the Zurich-based group — which combines both insured and uninsured losses — was down from $59 billion (45 billion euros) in the first half of 2013.

It was also about half the average first-half loss of the previous ten years, which was $94 billion.

The insurance industry took a hit of $21 billion from disasters in the January to June period.

That was down from the $25 billion in payouts over the same period in 2013, and also below the $27 billion ten-year average.

The costliest disaster for the insurance sector was the thunderstorms and hail which hit the United States in mid-May, causing $3.2 billion in damage, of which $2.6 billion was insured.

Next came June's storms in France, Germany and Belgium, where losses reached $2.7 billion, with $2.5 billion of that covered by insurers.

February's snowstorm in Japan inflicted $5 billion in economic losses, but only half of that figured was insured.

The January snowstorm in the United States lead to economic losses of $2.5 billion, of which $1.7 billion was insured.

And May's thunderstorms and tornadoes in the United States generated losses of $1.7 billion, with $1.1 billion of that covered.

Rich countries traditionally see the most expensive single disasters in terms of insurance claims, given their wealthier economies and extensive insurance penetration.

Poorer nations generally face a gap between overall economic damage and insurance payouts.

For example, May's heavy flooding in Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia resulted in economic losses of $4.5 billion, but Swiss Re said insured losses were moderate due to low coverage.

Poorer nations also traditionally bear the brunt in terms of lives lost in disasters, which Swiss Re said reached 4,700 in the first six months of the year.

Man-made disasters were to blame for economic losses of $3 billion over the first half, with $2 billion of the sum insured.

In the first six months of 2013, man-made disaster losses had reached $5 billion, above the ten-year average of $4 billion.

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