Germany: WWII bomb found in Cologne

Ten thousand office workers and 15 residents were ordered to leave their homes and offices after a WWII bomb was found near the city center. Trains, ships and flights were disrupted and TV-broadcaster was evacuated.

Thousands of workers in the western German city of Cologne were ordered to evacuate on Tuesday after a 500-kilogram WWII bomb was discovered on the bank of the Rhein river that flows through the city.

A 500-meter exclusion zone was set up around the site where the bomb was discovered in a business district of Cologne, and 10,000 workers were evacuated, along with 15 residents.

Bomb disposal experts arrived shortly before midday at the site in the district of Deutz on the right side of the river bank and diffused the bomb within 25 minutes. Security measures were lifted soon after.

It was "not easy" said Stefan Höreth from the explosive ordnance disposal service in an interview with German broadcaster RTL.

"The bomb was dropped from more than 1000 meters, and if the detonator had been even slightly compressed then we would have had problems removing it," said Höreth.

Bomb disposals are commonplace in Germany, more than 70 years after WWII

Bomb unearthed by chance

Construction workers unearthed the bomb by chance on Monday evening near the Kennedy bank on the eastern side of the river, close to the city center.

The bomb had originally landed upright in the ground and old embankments and stone made the removal more difficult.

The exclusion zone set up around the bomb included workers at German broadcaster RTL, which continued to broadcast outside from the banks of the Rhine river.

"This case was unusual because of the large number of businesses that were effected, but the small number of residents," said a spokesperson for Cologne's public order office.

Unexploded WWII bombs are often discovered in the city, as it experienced heavy bombing from allied forces during WWII.