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Police cordon in downtown Heidelberg
Photo: Rene Priebe / dpa
The planned defusing of a World War II bomb has been causing restrictions in downtown Heidelberg since Friday morning.
As the city announced, around 4,000 residents are affected by the evacuation of the affected area around Heidelberg Central Station, which started around 7 a.m.
Universities, kindergartens and companies will remain closed in the area on Friday.
The 250-kilo dud was discovered on a construction site in the Bahnstadt district on Thursday afternoon.
A 50 meter safety radius around the site remained overnight.
According to the instructions, all people in the evacuation zone must vacate their homes and workplaces by 12 p.m. and have left the exclusion zone.
"City and police forces will go from house to house in the affected area, ring the doorbell and inform them with loudspeaker announcements," it said.
Officials had already started informing as many people as possible on Thursday.
The train station will also be temporarily closed for evacuation.
A police spokesman said it was not yet clear when exactly the process would be completed.
Bahn announces restrictions
The railway announced that there would probably be impairments in long-distance traffic from midday onwards.
ICE and IC trains stopping at Heidelberg Central Station would be diverted, and regional and S-Bahn services would also be interrupted.
The evacuation radius, which includes a large part of Bahnstadt and parts of Bergheim, includes the F&U campus, the Bahnstadt elementary school and Schiller University.
The city has set up a common area in the SNP dome multi-purpose hall for people who have no other accommodation option during the evacuation.
There is also an area for the sick.
fek/dpa/AFP
