The Czech city of Ostrava has evacuated 1,300 people due to a World War II bomb
Local police spokeswoman Eva Mitsalikova said that in Ostrava, a city in eastern Bohemia near the Polish and Slovak borders, the administrative centre of the Moravian-Silesian region and the country’s third largest city by population, some 1,300 people were evacuated Saturday in the residential area of Plesna due to the discovery of a 100-kilogram bomb from World War II.
“The bomb was discovered by a man digging in the ground on a plot near his house and reported the find to the police. The bomb squad, which was called in, ordered the evacuation of all residents in the area within 800 metres, which is about 1,300 people. The evacuation is still ongoing. Some of those residents who fled their homes are housed in the gymnasium of a nearby school, while others are on the firefighters’ bus. When the evacuation is over, the bomb squad will take the bomb outside the city and destroy it”, – a police spokeswoman said.
Interestingly, bombs and shells from World War II are still periodically found in the Ostrava area.