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Emergency vehicles are parked in front of the community center in the Holtenau district to assist residents with bomb defusal.
© Axel Heimken/dpa
It was the largest unexploded bomb from the Second World War ever found in Schleswig-Holstein.
Experts from the explosive ordnance disposal service have defused a 1.8-ton aerial mine on the Kiel Fjord.
Kiel - Experts from the explosive ordnance disposal service neutralized a large aerial bomb on the Kiel Fjord on Tuesday.
“It was the largest bomb from the Second World War ever found in Schleswig-Holstein,” said a spokeswoman for the German Press Agency.
To defuse it, the bomb was first lifted onto a floating pontoon using a crane.
After the experts had neutralized the 1.8-ton air mine on it, it was supposed to be brought ashore and later to the explosive ordnance disposal service's bomb storage facility.
The so-called apartment block buster from the Kiel Fjord was a chance find, said the police spokeswoman.
Soldiers from the 3rd minesweeping squadron from Kiel discovered the more than two meter long British unexploded bomb during an exercise last week and informed the explosive ordnance disposal service.
The air mine had three detonators.
Since the defusing took place in the middle of the fjord, comparatively few buildings had to be evacuated despite a large exclusion radius.
Up to around 170 people from the Kiel-Holtenau district and almost 1,500 residents from Heikendorf (Plon district) on the other side of the fjord had to leave their homes in the morning for the work.
Part of the Kiel Fjord was also closed.
This was temporarily closed from the Friedrichsort lighthouse coming from the lake.
The lock to the Kiel Canal in Holtenau also had to temporarily stop working to recover and defuse the bomb.
According to police, aerial mines are among the largest bombs dropped during World War II.
Most of the aerial bombs found in Kiel weigh 250 or 500 kilograms.
As a naval and shipyard location, Kiel was an important bombing target.
According to the city, 44,000 explosive bombs, 900 mine bombs and around 500,000 incendiary bombs fell in 90 air raids.
It was only on Sunday that a 250-kilogram aerial bomb was defused in the Elmschenhagen district.
dpa