World War II bomb discovered: police and fire brigade provide continuous information about the development Bild: dpa
The discovery of the bomb triggered a large-scale operation, thousands of people had to be brought to safety. The all-clear was sounded just after midnight.
The World War II bomb in Offenbach’s Bürgel district has been defused. After an hour-long delay, the explosive ordnance clearance service rendered the 250-kilogram bomb harmless at 12:10 a.m., Mayor Felix Schwenke (SPD) announced. The area around the site between Mainzer Ring and Karl-Herdt-Weg was released shortly afterwards.
“Offenbach Bürgel is again freely passable and the bus lines are running again,” said Schwenke, according to a message on Friday night. A total of around 400 emergency services and around 232 police officers from the city and district of Offenbach, Frankfurt, Groß-Gerau, Main-Taunus-Kreis and Main-Kinzig-Krei were deployed. They all secured the restricted area of 750 meters around the site.
The bomb defusing planned for the evening was initially delayed by several hours because the evacuation of the affected area took longer than expected. Around 100 people had to be transported lying down by rescue services and some transported to hospitals – according to the city, this is an unusually high number. A helicopter with a thermal imaging camera was deployed to ensure that no one was left in the danger zone. Just before 10 p.m., the city announced on Twitter that the eviction was nearing completion.
In the afternoon, a crisis team began work on the instructions of Mayor Schenke. The police, fire brigade and explosive ordnance clearance service were on site shortly after the find. In a radius of around 750 meters around the site, an evacuation of the houses was ordered. According to the city, up to 8,700 people are affected.
Road users were asked to drive around the area between Offenbacher Strasse/Langstrasse in the west and Geleitsweg/Eduard-Oehler-Strasse in the south and Arendsstrasse and Rohrstrasse in the north as far as possible, as the roads were closed off in the early evening. The population was asked to leave the area as soon as possible. Those who are not mobile could have the police organize a transport for them via rescue services. A care center for the duration of the evacuation was set up in the Ernst Reuter School.
It was not until Wednesday evening in Hanau on the premises of the Heraeus technology group that a 250-kilogram World War II bomb was rendered harmless with a controlled demolition. As a precaution, 16,000 people had to be brought to safety there, including patients in a hospital.
Those: jor./xere./mu.
