Bomb disposal experts safely defused two huge wartime bombs lying on the bottom of the Rhine River in Germany Sunday, after 45,000 people in the city of Koblenz had left the area as a precaution. It was the biggest evacuation because of an unexploded WWII bomb in German history. "We're very relieved," said fire brigade spokesman Manfred Morschhaeuser.
The centre of the western German city was emptied, with everyone within a radius of 1,800 metres from the bombs ordered out, including prisoners from a jail. Some 1,000 officials went from house-to-house checking that everyone was gone, leaving only pets behind.
The biggest bomb, a 1.8-ton British device, was recently spotted when the water level sank in the Rhine. A rusty, smaller US bomb was then found nearby. An unexploded smokescreen canister located near them was safely detonated during Sunday's operation.
Koblenz was heavily bombed from the air by the Allies during the war because it is a major transport junction and had main army bases.
Almost half the city's population of 106,000 had to leave. Most evacuees moved to the homes of relations. Seven schools in the suburbs were opened as shelters, but were only used by 330 people. Prisoners from a city jail were moved Friday to another prison.
To get at the bombs, a ring of 350 one-ton sandbags were dumped in a circle round them in the river and the bed was pumped dry within the ring so that bomb disposal experts could work in the dry.