Berlin, Germany – According to local reports, the Berlin Senate has given an estimate on how many unexploded WWII ordnance are still buried within Germany’s capital and the number is massive — about 3,000.
This new estimate given by the Berlin Senate was first released in the local newspaper BZ.
Allied forces had dropped so many ordnance on the city during WWII’s closing stages which accounts for the approximately 1.8 million explosive devices unearthed within the city’s area since 1945. Up until now, unexploded bombs and munitions are still found from time to time.
In the recently concluded previous year alone, 54 tons of explosives were found in Berlin.
It can be remembered that about 3,000 people were evacuated from from their homes in the suburb of Steglitz when a 1,100-pound American bomb was unearthed within the area way back in June last year.
In another incident which occurred just last December, 10,000 people had to be removed from Potsdam, the historic German city located just outside of Berlin, after a 550-pound bomb was found within the city center.
Furthermore, the main Tegel airport of Berlin was closed down for thirty minutes way back in October after another WWII bomb was found within its area.
The Berlin Senate cannot pinpoint the exact locations of these 3,000 unexploded WWII bombs under Berlin soil but as the Allies targeted airports, railway networks and factories when they bombed the city in WWII, then, these places are believed to be at the highest risk. What’s more, it is also believed that there are buried unexploded bombs within the extensive forests of Berlin.
Nonetheless, authorities state that since a long time has passed since these bombs have been dropped, there is little risk that the bombs will detonate on their own; they have to be disturbed to be triggered to blow off. But police authorities cite one exception to this rule — bombs with chemical fuses.