3 World War II bombs are defused in a German city's biggest postwar evacuation
COLOGNE, Germany — Three unexploded U.S. bombs from World War II were defused on Wednesday in Cologne after the German city's biggest evacuation since the end of the war.
More than 20,000 residents were evacuated from the city center earlier Wednesday after the bombs were unearthed on Monday during preparatory work for road construction.
Experts defused the bombs within about an hour, city authorities said in a statement.
The evacuations included homes, 58 hotels, nine schools, a hospital and two nursing homes, several museums and office buildings and the Messe/Deutz train station. It also included three bridges across the Rhine, including the heavily used Hohenzollern railway bridge, which leads into Cologne's central station. Shipping on the Rhine also was suspended.
https://www.npr.org/2025/06/05/nx-s1-5424237/world-war-ii-bombs-cologne-evacuation