Authorities in the German city of Cologne have evacuated three hospitals and thousands of homes after the discovery of an unexploded second world war bomb during construction work on a new medical campus.
The 1,000kg US aerial bomb, equipped with a front and rear impact detonator, is due to be defused on Friday.
A complex evacuation procedure had been in the planning since excavation work on the site began about six months ago, owing to well-founded fears that an unexploded ordnance would be discovered there.
A 500-metre evacuation zone has been established around the area where the bomb is located. City authorities say experts have told them that a further eight unexploded aircraft bombs could be on the site, but that this can only be determined by further excavations.
The evacuation operation, which involved about 1,300 city orderlies, police, firefighters, emergency service staff, a full-on local media campaign and 800 volunteers, who knocked on doors to ensure residents left their homes, was described by authorities as the biggest and most extensive such operation of its kind since 1945.
Two hospitals were evacuated on Thursday, while a third was cleared on Friday morning, along with up to 10,000 residents who were instructed to leave their flats, according to a spokesperson for the city.
Traffic and public transport was also diverted from the area.
Patients were distributed to other hospitals around the city in more than 300 ambulances, or moved to a temporarily built shelter, while residents were given refuge in school buildings just outside the evacuation area that were closed for the day.
Authorities said a “safe house” that already contained intensive care units (ICUs) was upgraded at considerable expense over several weeks to take between 50 to 70 ICU patients for whom a transfer to another hospital would have been life-threatening. They include burns victims and those in a coma who were admitted after the discovery of the bomb.
Cologne was among the most-bombed cities in Europe during the second world war. Evacuations due to bomb finds take place every year and are also commonplace in other large cities in Germany that were heavily targeted, including Berlin.
