Berlin set for mass evacuation to defuse World War II bomb

Berlin, April 20: A large-scale evacuation is to take place in Berlin today to allow experts to defuse a World War Two bomb.

Buildings will be cleared in a 2,625 feet radius from the construction site where the bomb was discovered. Thousands of unexploded bombs from the 1939-45 war are found every year.

Police said there is no immediate danger from the 500-kilogram British bomb, which was found on Heidestrasse last Wednesday. “We have a defusal on this scale around once or twice a year in Berlin,” it said.

Of the bomb itself, police said on Twitter: “It is safe - there is no immediate danger.”

Last year some 60,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Frankfurt after a massive bomb dropped by Britain’s Royal Air Force was unearthed.

Police spokesman Martin Halweg said it was not yet clear how long the evacuation would last or whether Tegel airport would be affected.

According to police, the area to be cleared includes Berlin Hauptbahnhof - the central railway station, an army hospital, the economy and transport ministries and the embassies of Indonesia and Uzbekistan.