Because of a 20-hundredweight bomb from the Second World War, more than 4000 people have to leave their homes and apartments, thousands more have to stay in their homes for hours. The dud is blown up in a controlled manner. After almost eleven hours, the major action in Oberhausen is over.
Oberhausen (dpa / lnw) – A 20-hundredweight bomb from the Second World War was controlled and successfully blown up on Thursday evening in Oberhausen under great security precautions. More than 4,000 people in Oberhausen and neighboring Duisburg, who had been evacuated from the danger area within a radius of 1,000 meters from the site of the bomb from 9:00 a.m., were allowed to return to their homes and apartments after the detonation at around 7:30 p.m., the city announced . Around 19,000 other people in both cities – within a radius of 1000 to 2000 meters from the site – were no longer allowed to leave their homes from noon.
It was said that it was no longer possible to defuse the dud due to the lack of a detonator. Since the 2,000-kilogram bomb could not be detonated at the site near the Emscher in the Oberhausen district of Holten without endangering the Emscher dike, it was carefully and slowly transported around 500 meters to a safe location over a period of hours.
There excavators had excavated a crater about eight meters deep. The experts from the explosive ordnance clearance service placed the dud at the lowest point and covered it with several tons of sand and three large water cushions, each 24,000 liters. More than a big “buff” and splashing sand could not be heard during the blast.
This had previously had to be postponed because suddenly several people were illegally staying in the evacuation area, it was said. The police had to intervene. Then finally the all-clear came via loudspeaker announcements and the warning app NINA.
According to Oberhausen’s city spokesman Martin Berger, the evacuation that began in the morning went largely smoothly and was completed as planned around noon. “Unfortunately, there were also several people who refused to leave the danger zone,” he said. The police had to intervene there.
107 firefighters were deployed. There were also numerous road closures. Local rail traffic, including at Oberhausen-Holten station, was suspended for hours. Many regional trains could not run. The nearby Autobahn 3 (Oberhausen-Frankfurt) was also affected: it was completely closed from 1 p.m. between the Oberhausen Autobahn interchange and the Oberhausen-West junction until it was blown up, as was the A3 Oberhausen-Holten exit.