UKRAINE: Officials call for apartment building to be evacuated after a WWII bomb is discovered in residential neighbourhood in Sevastopol

Record ID: 357606

  • Title: UKRAINE: Officials call for apartment building to be evacuated after a WWII bomb is discovered in residential neighbourhood in Sevastopol
  • Date: 10th January 2013
  • Summary: SEVASTOPOL, UKRAINE (JANUARY 10, 2013) (REUTERS) POLICE OFFICERS STANDING OUTSIDE APARTMENT BUILDING POLICE OFFICERS STANDING NEAR ROAD
  • Embargoed: 25th January 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA1HKMH9HRAJZBL2GZ9QYPLNB35
  • Story Text: A residential complex in Ukraine's Sevastopol was evacuated on Thursday (January 10) after a WWII-era bomb was discovered near an apartment building.
    The bomb - a 250 kilogram explosive device was discovered last year when construction workers dug close to where the bomb was hidden.
    On the Thursday morning the residents in the area's surrounding apartment buildings were evacuated while military and police units worked to extract the explosive device.

    "To be honest we weren't (afraid) at first, we just laughed a bit. But this morning when we saw the helmets, guns, armour and the bullet proof vests, I understood that it was serious, and going out into the courtyard I saw that there were policemen at every intersection, military troops, so it somehow became serious and frightening," one evacuated resident Larissa Antonovna told Reuters.
    The bomb, according to local officials, was apprehended in the area in December 2012.

    "There was information that a dangerous item from World War II was discovered by military construction workers who build residential buildings in the Radiogonka region. This was at the end of December of last year," Sevastopol Emergencies Ministry Administrative Department Head Miroslav Sagaidak said.
    Later on Thursday a military unit transported the bomb to an area 10 kilometres away from Sevastopol and detonated it.

    "There was an extraction from the ground near Simanok Street of a dangerous item from the World War II era. It's a German SC250 air bomb. A military unit extracted this item, loaded into a specialized vehicle for transporting explosive material," Sevastopol Emergencies Ministry Deputy Head Sergei Ryabtsov said.
    World War II-era bombs are frequently discovered in Europe. Also on Thursday a group of workmen discovered a World War II bomb in Aston, Birmingham.
    In April of last year a bomb from the 1940s killed one person when it exploded in eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk. In October of last year some 8,000 people were evacuated when a 500-kilo unexploded bomb was discovered in Budapest, Hungary.
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