Last month, an 1,100-pound unexploded bomb from WWII, believed to be of American origin, was uncovered near Cologne, Germany, where a construction crew had been digging. Some 3,000 people were evacuated from the area while the bomb was carefully extricated. Earlier last year, similar bombs near Cologne were discovered and defused.
The bombs discovered near Cologne are not uncommon. Surprisingly, around 2,000 tons – yes tons – of unexploded ordnance is found, and detonated, annually in Germany.
Read more…
Source: Forbes News
Sign up for Counter-IED Report Newsletter
Related:
- Germany: Explosion reported near Munich train station
December 1, 2021
Four people were injured in an explosion near Munich’s main train station on Wednesday, the city’s fire department said. A WWII-era aerial bomb was the cause of the blast, Bavaria’s state Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said during a visit to the site. Workers accidentally hit the 250-kilogram (551-pound) bomb while conducting drilling work, he added. Read more… Source: DW ...
- Pakistan Navy EOD participates in 8th multinational exercise NUSRET 2021 at Turkey
October 31, 2021
Pakistan Navy participated in 8th multinational special operations exercise ‘NUSRET 2021’ at Canakkale, Turkey. PN Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team participated alongwith teams of other countries under the auspices of Turkish authorities. Teams from Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Iraq, Libya, Oman, Republic of Korea, Romania and Tanzania participated in the exercise. Representatives from NATO Mine ...
- Multinational Ardent Defender counter explosive threat exercise concludes in Canada
October 22, 2021
CANADIAN FORCES BASE BORDEN, Ontario, Canada – Explosive ordnance disposal technicians from 11 different nations improved their life-saving and mission-enabling skills during Exercise Ardent Defender in Canada, Sept. 18 – Oct. 22. The exercise brought together military and law enforcement bomb disposal technicians from the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, France, South Korea, Australia, Colombia, ...
- Kenya: Germany commissions expansion of counter-IED complex in Embakasi
October 5, 2021
The war on terrorism has received a major boost after the Federal Republic of Germany commissioned the expansion of the new counter-Improvised Explosive Device (C-IED) wing at the Humanitarian Peace Support School (HPSS) in Embakasi. The Kshs. 300 million project funded by Germany will see military personnel from the East African region receive training on IED ...
- Europol: 9 Taken Into Custody Over Atm Attack Tutorials And String Of Explosive Attacks
September 30, 2021
A joint investigation team (JIT) between the Dutch and German authorities has taken down an organised crime group specialised in explosive attacks against Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs). A total of 9 suspects have been taken into custody as a result of this 18-month investigation coordinated by Europol and Eurojust. The criminals were producing step-by-step tutorials on ...
- U.S. Army EOD Soldiers to participate in multinational Ardent Defender exercise in Canada
September 16, 2021
CANADIAN FORCES BASE BORDEN, Ontario, Canada – U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal Soldiers will be training with military and law enforcement personnel from 11 partner nations during Exercise Ardent Defender Sept. 18 – Oct. 22. Army EOD technicians from the Fort Bragg, North Carolina-based 192nd Ordnance Battalion (EOD) will participate in the counter explosive threat exercise ...
- 25,000 people evacuated after discovery of massive World War II bomb in Frankfurt
May 20, 2021
Thousands of People have been evacuated from a neighbourhood of Germany’s financial capital Frankfurt following the discovery of a massive World War II bomb. City authorities said 25,000 people were evacuated from the densely populated Nordend area after the 500 kilogramme bomb was unearthed during construction work. Bomb disposal teams are due to detonate the explosive once ...
- Representatives of 12 countries discuss mine action in Ukraine
April 29, 2021
An international online conference on mine action in Ukraine was held at the Ivan Chernyakhovsky National Defence University of Ukraine with the assistance of the Defence Education Enhancement Programme (DEEP). “The participants discussed the mine action system in Ukraine, the practice of investigating incidents with self-made explosive devices, the existing problems of personnel training methods for ...
- Germany: WWII bomb discovered and defused in Mannheim
April 22, 2021
Construction workers in the southern German city of Mannheim uncovered a 500-kilo (1100-pound) World War II-era aerial bomb, police said in a statement on Thursday. The explosive device, found at a former US military barracks, was defused on the same day. About 3,000 people in a radius of approximately 500 meters (roughly one third of a mile) ...
- NATO mine clear-up operation Open Spirit 2021 kicks off
April 19, 2021
11 states and 21 vessels with diving squads are participating in the Open Spirit 2021 NATO mine countermeasures (MCM) operation launched in Estonian waters on Monday. The main area of operation in this year’s MCM mission is the Gulf of Finland and its southeastern part Narva Bay, military spokespeople said. Groups of mine clearance vessels are ...
- Germany Extends Military Presence in Afghanistan into 2022
March 26, 2021
Germany’s Parliament extended the presence of German troops in Afghanistan for another 10 months, media reports say. Germany has up to 1,300 soldiers in Afghanistan under NATO’s Resolute Support’s train, advice and assist mission to Afghan forces who will stay until January 2022. The current parliamentary mandate for the German operation expires at the end of March. This ...
- Germany: Man who threatened to blow up NHS hospital convicted of extortion
February 27, 2021
A Berlin-born man who threatened to blow up an NHS hospital unless he was paid £10m in cryptocurrency has been convicted of extortion by a German court. Emil A, an Italian national, sent the first threatening email to the NHS in April 2020 – at the height of the first peak of the coronavirus pandemic – ...
- Three letter bombs sent to German firms may be linked, say investigators
February 19, 2021
Prosecutors in Germany are investigating a possible link between three recent letter bomb attacks on German food retail companies. “We assume there is a connection,” state prosecutors in Heidelberg said on Friday after attacks on a supermarket chain, a drinks company and a baby food producer this week. They said further attacks were not likely but ...
- Germany: 3 injured in mail bomb blast at Lidl HQ in Neckarsulm, north of Stuttgart
February 17, 2021
A total of three people were injured in an explosion in a office building belonging to German discount supermarket chain Lidl in Neckarsulm, a town in southwest Germany, on Wednesday. The explosion was caused by a bomb in either a letter or a small parcel, a spokesman for the local police force in nearby Heilbronn told ...
- Bomb making equipment, shotguns and Isis flag found during police raids in Denmark and Germany
February 12, 2021
Shotguns, a rifle and “things that can be used to make a bomb,” were found as 14 people were arrested in Denmark and Germany on suspicion of preparing one or several attacks in the two countries, Danish police said Friday. An Islamic State group flag could indicate the suspects “have a connection or sympathy with the ...
- Danish, German Authorities Detain 14 Suspects In Counter-Terrorism Operation
February 12, 2021
Authorities in Denmark and Germany have arrested a total of 14 people in the last week on suspicion of planning “one or more” terrorist attacks, according to the Danish Security and Intelligence Service. The agency, known as PET, said in a release that it had detained 13 suspects in separate incidents, and that German authorities had ...
- Germany: 4 World War II bombs prompt evacuation in Göttingen
January 31, 2021
German bomb disposal expert detonated four WWII bombs after thousands of Göttingen residents were forced to leave their homes. Officials had suspended some of the anti-pandemic measures during the evacuation effort. On Saturday, more than 8,000 people left their homes in Göttingen, with police, firefighters and the German army all taking part in the large-scale evacuation ...
- Trends in Terrorism: What’s on the Horizon in 2021?
January 5, 2021
The year 2020 was unprecedented in many ways. Just three days into the year, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF) commander Qasem Soleimani. That news was soon eclipsed by the worldwide spread of the novel coronavirus and the ensuing COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns, protests, and a bitterly ...
- Crude bomb attack targets the health authorities in Germany
October 31, 2020
Last Sunday, before Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany announced a second national lockdown, a homemade bomb exploded in the early morning hours in central Berlin, close to a research institute that tracks virus cases and less than a mile from Ms. Merkel’s office. The bomb produced a flash and a boom but not much else. ...
- Fire damages German infectious disease institute
October 25, 2020
Bottles and incendiary devices were thrown at the facade of a building belonging to the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin. The government agency has been at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19 in Germany. A Robert Koch Institute (RKI) building in Berlin was targeted with incendiary devices in the early hours of Sunday, police in ...
- Germany: Clearing of WWII mines did cause porpoise deaths
October 22, 2020
A 2019 mine clearance operation in the Baltic Sea killed several porpoises as alleged, Germany’s nature conservation agency has concluded. The animals, Germany’s only native whale species, are on the endangered list. A number of porpoises died last year as a result of explosions that occurred while clearing British World War II mines in a protected ...
- German police say suspicious device found on train near Cologne not explosive
October 3, 2020
Police in Germany said on Saturday a suspicious device found on a regional train overnight near the western city of Cologne was not explosive and did not pose a threat. A statement said bomb specialists investigated the object, which contained nails and black powder, after it was discovered by a cleaner in a cardboard box hidden ...