A 100-kilogram bomb from World War II is to be defused in Berlin-Friedrichshain on Thursday. For this purpose, a restricted area around Lange Straße near the Ostbahnhof will be set up in the morning from 8 a.m. All people who live or work there have to leave the area, the police said on Wednesday. Only then can the explosives experts from the State Criminal Police Office begin their work. According to information from the “B.Z.” More than 3000 people are said to be affected.
The police wanted to say how big the circle should be. In the vicinity of where the bomb was found on a construction site on the corner of Krautstraße there are residential buildings, a school, a day care center, the railway line through the city center and the large Holzmarktstraße. The Ostbahnhof is about 500 meters away. It should not lie in a circle and should not be cleared. When the bomb is uncovered and the actual defusing begins, which involves removing or destroying the detonator, the S-Bahn and train traffic is said to be stopped.
A bomb weighing 100 kilograms is one of the smaller aerial bombs. More common are 250-kilo and 500-kilo bombs, for which the containment circuit for defusing is even larger. Disarmed bombs are brought to the detonation site in Grunewald and detonated there in a controlled manner.
According to the police, the Berlin explosives experts are called on average two to three times a day to find ammunition or bombs. In 2021 alone, 52 tons of war ammunition were found. According to estimates by the Senate, almost 80 years after the end of the war, there are still more than 4,500 dud bombs in Berlin. According to historians, Americans, British and Russians dropped more than 45,000 tons of explosives on the city during World War II.
