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Mass evacuation in Frankfurt as WWII bomb defused

The 500-kilogramme British bomb was found on a construction site in Germany’s financial capital on Thursday.

NEARLY 13,000 RESIDENTS were evacuated in Frankfurt today as experts defused an unexploded World War II bomb, local emergency services said. 

The 500-kilogramme (1,100-pound) British bomb had been found on a construction site in Germany’s financial capital on Thursday, the emergency services said.

It was successfully defused in less than two hours, the fire service announced on Twitter in the afternoon.

Some 12,800 residents had been asked to leave their homes in the morning and some local trains were diverted or delayed.

A 700-metre (half-mile) evacuation radius was set up in the west of the city centre in an area that included a number of old people’s homes, heating and internet infrastructure and facilities of the Deutsche Bahn national rail operator.

Authorities had said the work could take up to five hours, but “it can go very quickly if the detonator is positioned in such a way that the experts can get to it quickly”, a fire service spokeswoman told AFP.

Some 75 years after the war, Germany remains littered with unexploded ordnance, often uncovered during construction work.

Earlier this year, experts defused seven World War II bombs found on the future location of Tesla’s first European factory, just outside Berlin.

Sizeable bombs have also been defused in Cologne and Dortmund this year. 

In 2017, the discovery of a 1.4-tonne bomb in Frankfurt prompted the evacuation of 65,000 people — the largest such operation since the end of the war in Europe in 1945.

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    Mute Paul Radburn
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    Aug 9th 2014, 4:03 PM

    Fair play to her

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    Mute mister
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    Aug 9th 2014, 4:10 PM

    And how appropriate that she comes from an age-group that is particularly affected by the problem.

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    Mute J. Dunn
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    Aug 9th 2014, 4:57 PM

    Necessity is the mother of invention.

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    Mute Roisin Byrne
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    Aug 9th 2014, 4:16 PM

    Well that makes me feel like an underachiever, but fair play to her!

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    Mute Shane Mc Quillan
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    Aug 9th 2014, 4:16 PM

    Should try it out on everyone who has a social media profile. Plenty of people aged 25+ who would still post a nasty and cyber bullying type of comment,even after a moment of reflection on it

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    Mute Aoife Kally
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    Aug 9th 2014, 4:16 PM

    Wow that’s fantastic :)

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    Mute Bernard O'Brien
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    Aug 9th 2014, 5:32 PM

    Maith an cailin. Go n’eiri an bothar leat.

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    Mute John Doyle
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    Aug 9th 2014, 4:35 PM

    So Think before you speak? Please tell me more about this discovery.

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    Mute Dylan
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    Aug 9th 2014, 4:39 PM

    I thought that’s what kids were told in school all the time about cyber bullying

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    Mute Jack Bowden
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    Aug 9th 2014, 4:14 PM

    What a goodie goodie two shoes, full of herself little madam.

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    Mute Jack Bowden
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    Aug 9th 2014, 4:15 PM

    Wait a minute, I didn’t want to send that. :-)

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    Mute Brigid Popps
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    Aug 9th 2014, 6:32 PM

    What an innovator congrats to her it would be wonderful to see the end of this vile practice

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    Mute Wont be censored
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    Aug 10th 2014, 1:30 AM

    She would have enough material for her doctorate on the Journal.ie comments section.

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    Mute joe soap
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    Aug 9th 2014, 6:58 PM

    I have a much easier surefire way.get off the internet.

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    Mute Dervy O' S
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    Aug 10th 2014, 1:08 AM

    Such a great idea, delighted to see their are some compassionate little teens out there wanting to make the world a better place :) fair play to her :)

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    Mute Windom Earle
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    Aug 9th 2014, 10:35 PM

    I think she should blame Obama and Israel.

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    Mute John Ocallaghan
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    Aug 10th 2014, 5:17 AM

    Jack grow up

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    Mute WellHello
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    Aug 10th 2014, 11:20 AM

    Think we’ll be hearing a lot more from this girl in years to come! Well done!

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