Police forces examine the scene of a World War II bomb explosion during construction works of a digger in Euskirchen, Germany, Friday, Jan. 3, 2014
An unexploded bomb detonated in Germany Friday, resulting in one more World War II casualty, sixty-eight years after fighting ended.
A driver of a bulldozer was killed by the explosion after accidentally striking the bomb in the German town of Euskirchen, the Associated Press reports. Thirteen other people were injured, two critically. The explosion damaged homes within a 400-meter radius of the detonation.
Undiscovered bombs still litter Germany almost 70 years after the war. About 2,000 have been found in Berlin alone, according to National Geographic. In November, 20,000 people had to be evacuated from Dortmund when police found a 4,000-pound Allied bomb. They defused the bomb before anyone was hurt. “Here in Berlin, it is a fact of daily life to defuse bombs,” a Berlin police spokeswoman told CNN, after authorities defused a Russian bomb found less than six feet from train tracks in the city center.
The threat of leftover bombs is so common that companies often hire private bomb disposal companies to check if sites are safe before construction, according to CNN.
[AP]