Scorched landscapes across Europe have exposed a potentially lethal threat lurking underground.
Rusted bombs and mines from the First and Second World Wars are now endangering emergency crews responding to wildfires across the continent.
High heat has caused several weapons to explode in France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. In the Dutch province of Limburg, a bomb disposal team was called out to inspect woodland near the site of heavy 1944 combat threatened by flames.
Read more…
Source: Independent
Sign up for the Counter-IED Report Newsletters
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Ukraine: Russian-appointed administrator killed by car bomb in Kharkiv region
July 11, 2022
The Russian-appointed administrator of a small town in the Russian-occupied east of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region has been killed by a car bomb presumed to be the work of Ukrainian saboteurs, the regional occupation authorities have said. The pro-Moscow military-civilian administration said Yevgeny Yunakov, chief administrator of Velikyi Burluk, had been killed by a Ukrainian sabotage and ...
- Poland: Police detain man with explosives in Warsaw, evacuate area
July 11, 2022
Police said Monday they detained a 31-year-old man who placed an explosive device in a downtown Warsaw street where over 300 people werewere taking part in a remembrance march for the victims of World War II massacres of Poles. The police said on Twitter they had evacuated the area within 200 meters (yards) of the spot ...
- UK: Far right extremist caught with step-by-step instructions on how to make home explosives
July 8, 2022
A man with extreme right wing views was found with ‘step-by-step instructions on how to make home explosives’ and a banned ‘push dagger’. Scott Mason, 36, has been jailed following a counter-terror probe. He is said by police to harbour right wing, racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic views. The investigation found a document on his phone containing step-by-step ...
- Hungary: Explosive Ordnance Disposal Service Alerted More Than a Thousand Times This Year
July 7, 2022
In the past six months, the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Service of the Hungarian Armed Forces has received more than a thousand reports of explosive devices. The number of safe underground destruction of explosive devices has exceeded 220. This article was originally published on our sister-site, Ungarn Heute. On Tuesday, the Hungarian Defense Forces Bomb Disposal Command announced ...
- Latvia: Riga Airport to Purchase New Explosives Detection System for Checking Hand Luggage
July 6, 2022
Riga Airport of Latvia will purchase a new explosives detection system to control passengers’ hand luggage by using financial savings from the European Cohesion Fund. Through a statement issued on June 30, the Ministry of Transport of Latvia emphasized that the purchase of the system is foreseen by the changes in the contract signed with the ...
- November 2015 Paris attacks: Salah Abdeslam guilty as historic trial ends
June 30, 2022
The only surviving attacker from the group that carried out the November 2015 Paris attacks has been found guilty of terrorism and murder charges. Salah Abdeslam received a rare full-life sentence for his role in the gun and bomb attacks that killed 130 people. The court also convicted 19 other men involved, six of whom are believed ...
- Ukraine: Russian-installed Kherson official killed in bomb blast
June 24, 2022
A senior official in the Russian-installed administration of Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region was killed in an apparent assassination on Friday. Dmitry Savluchenko, head of the families, youth, and sports department of the Kherson Military-Civilian Administration, was killed in a bomb blast. Russia’s TASS news agency said there were two burnt-out cars in a courtyard of Kherson, the ...
- Hungary: World War II bomb found in Budapest’s 13th district
June 20, 2022
The bomb will be defused on Tuesday morning at the site in the XIII district. The area will be evacuated and sealed off in a 200-meter radius for the duration of the work, said Milán Gajdos, communications officer of the Defence Forces’ fire brigade. The report came from a construction site on Kartács Street. The bomb ...
- Ukraine: Area larger than UK covered with unexploded devices
June 19, 2022
As a result of war in Ukraine, more than 116,000 square miles (300,000 km2) of the territory is likely to be contaminated with unexploded devices, according to the Deputy Minister of Interior. Just to put that into context, that is an area larger than the UK. But in Ukraine, there are only 300 qualified technicians available to ...
- Somalia: ATMIS, UNMAS and key stakeholders conclude conference to counter IEDs
June 18, 2022
Top officials of the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), and key stakeholders, have concluded a three-day conference to take stock of the current measures to counter Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), in order to develop a comprehensive IED threat mitigation strategy. The conference in Mogadishu, attended by Somali ...
- Ukraine: Kherson Region’s head of penal service comes under attack
June 18, 2022
A bomb went off in the car of Yevgeny Sobolev, head of the Kherson Region penal service, who was taken to a hospital, a law enforcement source told TASS. His official’s life isn’t in danger, the source said. “The car of the head of the penal service was blown up. His life isn’t in danger at the ...
- Ukrainian soldiers raise money by writing custom notes on artillery shells for $40 before firing them at Russians
June 16, 2022
A Ukrainian student is selling the opportunity to write custom messages on artillery shells which Ukrainian soldiers are firing at Russian troops. Anton Sokolenko, a 22-year-old IT student based in Cherkasy, central Ukraine, told Insider he has raised thousands of dollars to support local troops through the $40-a-shell deal. His ads, on social media platforms like Reddit, ...
- Some 160,000 square km of territory of Ukraine require mine clearance operations
June 16, 2022
Around 160,000 square kilometers of the territory of Ukraine need to be examined for the presence of explosives, Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Hanna Maliar has said. “Some 160,000 square kilometers of the territory of Ukraine today need to be examined for the presence of explosives. A national agency for mine clearance operations has been set ...
- BISON COUNTER C-IED Exercises Capability Building project kicks off
June 14, 2022
BISON COUNTER, the largest and most relevant European Counter Improvised Explosive Devices (C-IED) exercise, will in the future be organised directly under the auspices of EDA instead of only benefitting from the Agency’s support, as in the past. To that end, a new EDA ‘Cat B’ project – the BISON COUNTER C-IED Exercises Capability Building ...
- BALTOPS 22: A Perfect Opportunity For Research And Testing New Technology
June 12, 2022
BALTIC SEA — A significant focus of BALTOPS every year is the demonstration of NATO mine hunting capabilities, and this year the U.S. Navy continues to use the exercise as an opportunity to test emerging technology. In support of BALTOPS, U.S. Navy Sixth Fleet partnered with U.S. Navy research and warfare centers to bring the latest ...