Most of the center of the German city of Dresden has been evacuated after a World War II bomb was found near a bridge that collapsed in 2024, the BBC reports.
The Dresden fire department said it was the largest evacuation the city has ever had for such a reason, affecting around 18,000 residents and tourists. Most of the old town, including some of Dresden’s most famous buildings, has been cordoned off. The evacuation zone also includes the police headquarters, the Saxony state parliament, several ministries, nursing homes, kindergartens and other public buildings. Authorities have set up emergency accommodation at the Dresden exhibition center, and it is not known how long it will take to defuse the bomb.
The British Air Force bombed Dresden on the 13th of February, 1945.
Almost 4,000 bombs were dropped on the city that day and in the days that followed. The fires that followed the bombing killed 25,000 people and devastated the city center.
Four bombs were found last year when the Carols Bridge was dismantled.
The bombing of Dresden is one of the most controversial Allied operations of World War II, and while some believe it was strategically justified, others believe it was a war crime. British tenor Stephen Chaundy, who works at the Dresden Opera and whose rehearsals on were canceled, said the shadows cast by the past were long.
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