The discovery of an unexploded World War II
bomb at Dusseldorf Airport, Germany led to the
cancellation of seven flights this morning. The
airport spokesman, Christian Hinkel, said that
the ordnance, which was found overnight near
the runway of Germany’s third largest airport,
was safely detonated by bomb disposal experts.
“Two departures and five arrivals were
cancelled during the controlled explosion,’’
Hinkel said, adding that the airport operations
were otherwise unaffected.
Sandbags were heaped around the site to
dampen the force of the blast, he added.
However, unexploded bombs dating back to the
aerial bombardments of Germany during World
War II are still frequently found. Many local
authorities have teams working full-time to
detect and defuse them.
The biggest evacuation in Germany since the
end of the war took place in 2011, when 45,000
people were forced to temporarily leave parts of
Koblenz for the disposal of an unexploded
Allied bomb.