Germany’s Dusseldorf asked its 13,000 residents to leave their homes temporarily as a World War II-era bomb was found, German news outlet Deutsche Welle (DW) reported. The police and bomb squad launched an operation to dispose of the unexploded one-tonne shell which was discovered on 7-8 August.

The bomb was found during the working hours near the city zoo, the outlet reported quoting officials. In Dusseldorf, authorities ordered all residents within a 500-metre radius of the bomb’s location to evacuate the area. Even roads within the evacuation zone were temporarily closed during the disposal operation.

Some residents carried their pets with them as they left their homes, the report claimed. However, it remains unclear when the disposal was completed and restrictions lifted.

Has this happened before?

In 2017, the discovery of a 1.4-tonne bomb in Frankfurt forced the evacuation of 65,000 people. In December 2021, a Second World War bomb exploded at a construction site near Munich station. Four people were injured due to the explosion.

The US and British air forces dropped 2.7 million tons of bombs on Europe- half of which were on Germany between 1940 and 1945, Smithsonian Magazine reported.