More than 20,000 residents were evacuated from central Cologne on Wednesday as bomb disposal experts prepared to defuse three unexploded U.S. bombs from World War II, discovered earlier this week during road construction.
The evacuation—the largest in the city since 1945—encompassed a 1,000-meter radius around the site in the Deutz district, just across the Rhine from Cologne’s historic center. The area includes 58 hotels, nine schools, multiple museums, office buildings, and the Messe/Deutz train station. Three bridges spanning the Rhine, including the heavily trafficked Hohenzollern railway bridge, were closed, halting rail and river traffic.
Authorities said the defusal operation would proceed once the area was fully cleared. Volunteers and police conducted door-to-door checks to ensure compliance, with officials authorized to forcibly remove anyone refusing to leave. Emergency shelters, including sports halls and churches, were set up outside the evacuation zone.
The discovery of unexploded ordnance remains common in Germany eight decades after the war’s end. Cologne, among the most heavily bombed German cities, endured 262 Allied air raids, including the British Royal Air Force’s first “thousand-bomber raid” in May 1942. The three bombs—two weighing 1,000 kg and one 500 kg—were equipped with impact fuses designed to detonate upon hitting a hard surface.
Local media outlet RTL temporarily relocated its news broadcasts to Berlin after its Cologne studio fell within the evacuation perimeter. Deutsche Bahn rerouted or canceled numerous trains, while road traffic faced significant disruptions.
City officials expressed hope the operation would conclude by Wednesday evening. Cologne Cathedral, the city’s iconic landmark, lay just outside the danger zone and remained unaffected.