Germany, Bomb | featured news

Nearly 3,000 residents were evacuated from the heart of Munich on Tuesday before explosives experts detonated the remains of an undetonated, 550-pound World War II bomb, Andy Eckardt of NBC News reports. Bales of straw which had been placed around the bomb to cushion the shock of the detonation were set ablaze and thrown through the air by the detonation, according to the European Pressphoto Agency. Some of them landed on the roofs of neighboring buildings and ignited fires.

Holland's Ministry of Defense scrambled two military fighter jets to escort a Spanish passenger plane amid fears that the aircraft might have been hijacked, but the airline involved denied any trouble, saying the incident was the result of failed communications between the crew and the control tower... Part of Schiphol was already evacuated Wednesday after workers unearthed a suspected World War II bomb near the airport's main terminal.

Officials in Germany’s western city of Koblenz say some 45,000 residents have to be evacuated as officials try to defuse a World War II era bomb discovered in the Rhine river. City officials said Saturday the massive British 1.8 ton bomb will be defused early Sunday, requiring all residents within a radius of about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the bomb site to leave their homes for the day.

German authorities have shut down Berlin's main international airport after construction workers discovered a World War II bomb there.