Overview
- A 500‑kg U.S. aerial bomb discovered in a field near Schönkirchen was defused Sunday when the bomb-disposal team manually removed its tail fuze and police lifted roadblocks so about 240 residents could return home.
- Police and the Kampfmittelbeseitigungsdienst found a separate 250‑kg bomb in the Elbe near Heidenau/Pratzschwitz on Sunday and judged that the situation allowed for a planned, not immediate, defusal.
- Authorities have set an evacuation radius of about 1,000 metres around the Elbe find and ordered people to leave the area by 9:00 on Monday ahead of the scheduled disposal.
- Local police will secure and check the exclusion zone before the operation and the cities of Heidenau and Pirna will publish details on emergency shelters and other evacuation assistance.
- Unexploded ordnance from World War II is still commonly found in Germany during land and river work so the bomb-disposal service follows standard steps of assessment, evacuation, site security and either planned or urgent neutralization.