Tens of thousands of Germans in the city of Koblenz on Sunday were evacuated due to the threat of a World War II-era bomb going off in the Rhine River.
Around 45,000 residents of the city of 106,000 were forced to leave the area while bomb squad units worked to diffuse the explosive, reports Der Spiegel.
The 10-footlong, nearly two ton bomb recently revealed itself in the Rhine River after water levels dropped in November due to a dry spell. A second smaller bomb, about 275 pounds, was also found. Both were successfully detonated without incident.
Officials had conducted a door-to-door campaign to evacuate residents. “On Sunday we'll go ringing from house to house,” fire department spokesman Manfred Morschhause told Der Spiegel before the evacuation took place. A flier was handed to each household in the city.
As a precautionary measure, officials made a temporary wall consisting of 350 sandbags around the bomb to allow for the drainage of water.
The incident was one of the largest such evacuations in Germany, a country still littered with World War II bombs.
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