1,800 evacuated as France defuses British WWII bomb

Residents within 270 meters forced to leave area for several hours as sappers remove 220-kilogram bomb near Rouen town center

By AFP 12 August 2018, 6:06 pm

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French sappers in Rouen city center defuse World War II bomb on August 12, 2018. (Screen capture: Twitter)

RENNES, France — Some 1,800 people were ordered to evacuate their homes in northwest France on Sunday as a bomb squad defused a British bomb from World War II, officials said.

The 220-kilogram (485-pound) bomb was found in late June during construction work near the center of Rouen in Normandy.

Residents living within a 270-meter (nearly 900-foot) radius of the site were told to leave the area early Sunday ahead of the operation, which wound up shortly after 11:00 a.m.

Discoveries of bombs and shells from World War II are common in France and elsewhere on the continent.

Last month, the French navy defused an unexploded shell found in the sea near a popular beach in Cannes on the Mediterranean coast.

In May, nearly 9,000 people had to be evacuated after a bomb was uncovered in Dresden, Germany, a city which was heavily bombed toward the end of the war.