Blast from past averted: Mass evacuation in France over WWII bomb
A discovery of a massive 250kg British bomb, hidden in the ground since World War II, caused the evacuation of 3,000 people in the French city of Rennes.
The device was found by construction workers, involved in the
building of a subway line in the city’s center, not far from the
Rennes town hall.
The bomb was packed with 70kg of explosives material and the
experts faced a very “delicate operation” to disarm it,
Nathalie Appere, city’s mayor, told AFP.
La fameuse bombe anglaise larguée le 9 juin 1944, découverte place Saint Germain à Rennes, qui contenait 75kg de TNT pic.twitter.com/KKRMEPXGl7
— Laurent Riéra (@LaurentRiera) November 23, 2014
"It took two hours to defuse the bomb and it was quite
difficult because it was old and it wasn’t in really good
shape,” Frederique Camilleri, sub-prefect, said.
The police had to evacuate all homes and businesses within a
270-meter radius of the operation, including 90 elderly residents
of a local nursing home.
#Rennes: la bombe pl St Germain devra être désamorcée dans qqs jours avec mise en place d'un périmètre de sécurité pic.twitter.com/J4cP7TDPjM
— Isa Rettig (@isa_rettig) October 24, 2014
“It is quite common to find bombs from World War II in France
but the difficulty today was that the bomb was in a very
populated area,” Camilleri told RFI radio station.
In 2010, another British bomb was discovered in Rennes during the
building of a medical facility in the city’s center.
#Rennes évacuée! La #bombe La bombe anglaise de 250 kg (65kg d'explosifs), dégagée 70 ans après avoir été larguée ! pic.twitter.com/UIk67fqHHu”
— Ulysse Paris (@ulyssepariser) November 23, 2014
France was under Nazi German occupation in 1940-44, with major
railway junction, Rennes, becoming a frequent target of Britain’s
Royal Air Force bombing.
The Western Allies performed airstrikes against 1,570 French
cities and towns during World War II, killing nearly 67,000
civilians.
