Posted on 06/02/2010 8:36:20 AM PDT by darkside321
Three people have been killed and six injured trying to defuse a World War II bomb in central Germany.
Workers building a sports stadium had earlier unearthed the bomb in the town of Goettingen.
It was not immediately clear why the bomb, reportedly weighing 500kg (1,100lb), had detonated.
Unexploded WWII bombs dropped by Allied planes are frequently found in Germany, though it is unusual for them to explode unexpectedly.
A special commission is investigating the causes of the explosion, while prosecutors are considering whether the team leader should face charges of manslaughter through culpable negligence, the BBC's Oana Lungescu reports from Berlin.
The blast happened an hour before the defusing operation was due to start.
Officials said the three men who died were experienced sappers, or combat engineers, who over 20 years had defused up to 700 bombs.
More than 7,000 people were immediately evacuated when the 500kg bomb was found. Several schools, a kindergarten and local companies remain closed.
Last week, another device was successfully defused close to the site.
In Berlin, four bombs have been found in the past two months, including one near the capital's main airport.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Roosevelt’s fault.
Thank you for making me laugh! I needed that!
It will be interesting to find out if someone made a mistake in this instance or if the cookie finally cooked off on this bomb.
sometimes,, it’s just not your day.
Late, but effective.
>> A special commission is investigating the causes of the explosion, while prosecutors are considering whether the team leader should face charges of manslaughter through culpable negligence ...
Negligence? Good grief. Its a bomb squad.
SnakeDoc
Culpable negligence. Yep. Gotta find a scapegoat.
Did I hear that there were some German citizens on the flotilla boat that caused all the uproar?
Isn’t life interesting these days.
The U.S. dropped bombs with randomly set time delay fuses (though none as long as fifty years) to discourage fire fighting, salvage and defusing efforts. A dud might be a dud or it might be a ticking time bomb.
Obviously that old ordinance can be quite touchy. Those sappers have my admiration. Sad, indeed.
unfortunately they even sometimes detonate without beeing digged out. 2 years ago a ww2 bomb detonated in Austria because of an “acid detonator”.
http://wilbau.blogspot.com/2008/09/worldwar-bomb-explosion-vienna.html
“Next...go ahead and cut the blue wire”
“I repeat...cut the BLUE wire”
...”but first,you MUST cut the red wire!”
......””It was not immediately clear why the bomb, reportedly weighing 500kg (1,100lb), had detonated”””......
umm Mr. BBC reporter:
It wouldn’t have anything to do with the components of “bomb”? For background I suggest you research “bomb” in Webster’s dictionary.
The western world is getting stupider by the day.
Since it would seem logical that most of the bombs dropped in WWII would have been on the industrial complexes of Germany, I find it amazing that they are still finding bombs over 65 years later. I would think that all of those areas would have been covered by now, between rebuilding after the war and growth in the years since. Does anyone happen to know if they are still finding German bombs in England?
Das Schmerz-Schließfach
In the U.K. they just take them to the police station.
Man drives to cop station with WWII bomb
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/1054934/man-drives-to-cop-station-with-wwii-bomb
only industrial complexes??? Would be nice! ever heard of carpet bombing? ;-)
I´m pretty shure that there are still bombs buried in London too.
famous last words.........."here, push this little button."
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