45,000 people had to be evacuated after two extremely dangerous bombs were found in the Rhine River, 65 years after they were dropped by British and American planes.
The biggest was a British 1.8-ton bomb that had the potential to destroy the entire city center, according to the fire department of Koblenz, the German town were the devices were located. The bombs had remained unperturbed in the Rhine River for decades. This metal beast was found completely intact and ready to go when the water level dropped to an all-time low this year.
But the most dangerous was the American 275-pound high-explosive bomb. While the British shell was in good condition and its deactivation was relatively straightforward, the compact bomb was extremely difficult to deactivate. The impact had made it highly unstable.
The bomb experts destroyed a third device too, but this one was only annoying: a fog generator dropped by Allied airplanes to make hard for anti-aircraft battery operators to hit bombers. [CNN]