Wildfires across Europe detonate forgotten World War bombs


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:

  • ‘Death weapons’: Inside a teenage terrorist network

    July 27, 2022

    When Lukas F. walks onto the site of an abandoned army barracks in the summer of 2021 as part of his training to be a terrorist, he is 16 years old, a slender boy with dark hair. The site is about 45 minutes from the center of Potsdam, a city just southwest of Berlin, Germany. Once ...

  • Slovenia: World War I battlefield is on fire and exploding 100-year-old ordnance

    July 23, 2022

    The First World War ended 104 years ago, but thanks to wildfires burning the European continent, echoes of the Great War are being heard. And seen. And nearly killing firefighters because bombs left over from the conflict are blowing up. A massive wildfire is currently raging in the Kras region in Slovenia’s southwest. The fires are ...

  • UK: Third discovery of ordnance at former Copthorne Barracks

    July 22, 2022

    More unexploded ordnance has been found at a former army barracks which is being turned into housing. It was the third time in eight days that bomb disposal experts were called to the site at Copthorne in Shrewsbury. The developer Bellway is building more than 200 homes on the site, which closed as a Ministry of Defence ...

  • Missiles sent to Ukrainian troops could end up on black market as criminal gangs try to intercept Western supplies

    July 22, 2022

    Criminal gangs are trying to intercept Western weapons supplies sent to Ukraine amid fears they will be sold on the black market, the Daily Mail can reveal. British anti-tank rockets are among an estimated £7billion of military aid to have flooded the country during recent months to help repel Russia’s invasion. Only the higher-grade systems are tracked, ...

  • UK: Evacuations after hand grenade found in Hereford

    July 19, 2022

    Properties were evacuated after a hand grenade was found on Tuesday morning at an industrial estate. West Mercia Police said a cordon was placed around Rotherwas Industrial Estate in Hereford, with nearby properties evacuated as a precaution. The device was made safe by expert officers from Explosive Ordnance Disposal, the force added. Read more… Source: BBC News  

  • Greece: Ukrainian cargo plane carrying mines crashes near Kavala

    July 17, 2022

    A Ukrainian owned and operated cargo plane said to be carrying defense equipment — including mines — from Serbia crashed near Kavala, Greece, sparking a large-scale operation to secure the site and a swirl of speculation online about where the plane was ultimately headed. Serbian authorities said the plane, an Antonov An-12BK aircraft owned by the ...

  • European Union Terrorism Situation and Trend report 2022 (TE-SAT)

    July 13, 2022

    The annual EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (TE-SAT) presents figures, major developments and trends pertaining to the terrorism situation in the EU in 2021. It is based on verified qualitative and quantitative data provided by Member States on terrorist attacks, arrests and court decisions issued for terrorist offences. It also includes valuable qualitative information ...

  • Almost 30 foreign companies want to demine Ukraine

    July 12, 2022

    So far, eight foreign companies have received recommendations from the State Emergency Service on how to join the process of humanitarian demining in Ukraine, and another 20 such agencies have expressed their desire to work in this area. “Currently, the Danish Refugee Council and the Halo Trust are working very closely . Eight ...

  • 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 ...