Italian city evacuates 54,000 people to defuse WW2 bomb

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

MILAN, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Around 54,000 people were evacuated from the southern Italian city of Brindisi on Sunday as experts worked to defuse a World War Two bomb, authorities said.

Corriere della Sera daily said the operation was the biggest peacetime evacuation in Italy, with more than 60% of the city's residents forced to vacate a "red zone" in a radius of 1,617 meters from where the bomb was found.

The British bomb, believed to have been dropped on the city in 1941, is 1 meter long and contains 40 kgs of dynamite, authorities said. It was found by chance last month during refurbishment works at a cinema theater.

The city's airport, train station, two hospitals and a prison were shut down and evacuated as part of the operation, which authorities expect to be completed around lunchtime.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/italian-city-evacuates-54000-people-to-defuse-ww2-bomb/ar-AAK8HOZ?li=BBnb7Kz

[Dennis Donovan]

1. That war never ends

Likely will go on another century.

[cwydro]

2. I think WW1 soldiers still surface in French fields even in recent times.

Too bad such reminders don’t also serve as warnings.

[tblue37]

3. Notice that Warren does better than all others when voters are asked who they'd want if

they could just wave a magic wand and guarantee a president.

[hardluck]

4. What's her stance on Ww2 Ordnance?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

6. Think "light"

When you're standing on WW2 ordnance, think "light". Think "helium". Think "feather".

Better yet, don't take a stance on WW2 ordnance.

[tblue37]

7. Oops! Posted in the wrong thread. I tend to keep more than one open at a time. nt

[tritsofme]

5. Too bad that wand couldn't defuse the bomb!

Might have saved 54,000 people a lot of trouble!

[Leith]

8. I was evacuated because of an unexploded bomb once

I lived in Tokyo for 3 years in the early 1980s. One morning, as I was leaving to join friends for a day long outing, my neighbor came and told me of an evacuation. Apparently ordnance from WW II was found when construction crews were excavating for a new office building nearby.

It made for an interesting conversation starter when I met up with my friends.

There are probably hundreds of old German bombs hidden around London from the Blitz.
Anyplace that was bombed has dangerous stuff left over. When bombs are found, they get people out of the way, and they take care of it. There is very little chance that the bombs are live so long after they were dropped, but they can't take chances.

[miyazaki]

9. Still happens often enough.

The entire nation was essentially bombed back to the stone age.

One of my elderly Japanese language instructors told me stories of after the war when neighborhood kids playing about would happen upon bombs in the countryside and never make it home etc.

[Leith]

11. The worst I have ever felt as an American

was getting on the commuter train leaving the evacuation zone. There was one of the old women who were permanently bent over because of wartime deprivation in the car I got in. I had to go into the next car because I felt so ashamed. It never ended for her.

[brooklynite]

10. Far worse is...

the gas cylinders from WW1 that they're still digging out of Belgium...

A century after the end of the first world war, the task of disposing of old chemical weapons continues. Michael Freemantle reports

Hundreds of tons of unexploded ordnance are still unearthed by farmers every year in France and Belgium, observes Johannes Preuss, geography professor at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Germany. ‘In some areas, it is part of everyday work,’ he says. The collection, known as the ‘iron harvest’, includes not only chemical munitions, but also high explosive shells and bombs, bullets, shrapnel and barbed wire.

https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/the-great-war-clean-up/3009456.article