WWII Bomb Disposal Prompts Evacuation of 54,000 Citizens in Germany's Augsburg

Some 54,000 residents of the German city of Augsburg will be evacuated from their homes on the coming Christmas Sunday as a gigantic WWII bomb recently found in the city must be defused, kreiszeitung.de reported.

During the Christmas holidays, Augsburg is preparing for the largest evacuation in Germany since World War II.

On Sunday, bomb technicians are to defuse a 3.8-ton giant WWII bomb that was found in the city during construction works on Tuesday.

While other German residents will happily celebrate Christmas with their friends and families, 54,000 Augsburg residents will be evacuated from their homes.

The preparations for the evacuation are under way. On Friday, hundreds of helpers arrived in the city to prepare for the challenging weekend.

The reason why the bomb is to be defused on the Christmas holiday is organizational. During the evacuation, the entire inner city of Augsburg must be evacuated which means that all transport has to be stopped and enterprises closed.

According to local authorities, such a large-scale evacuation would be more problematic on a working day. This is why the city's authorities, the police and the fire brigade decided to defuse the bomb on the holidays.

WWII bombs are regularly found on the territory of Europe and Germany, in particular. About 5,500 unexploded ordnances are deactivated in Germany every year. A total of over 2 million aerial bombs were dropped over the country during the war, 100,000 of which are estimated to have remained undetonated.

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