World War II bomb defused: traffic unrestricted again

Police officers enter a residential building not far from Ostkreuz for the evacuation of the residents.

After the defusing of a World War II bomb in Friedrichshain, thousands of residents were allowed to return to their homes on Friday night.

After several hours of interruption, local and long-distance traffic in the east of the capital was able to run again without interruption. S-Bahns, buses, regional and long-distance trains as well as ships were affected. The airspace over the affected area was also temporarily closed. "The closures in Friedrichshain have been lifted," the police announced on Twitter at around midnight on Friday.

12,000 people evacuated

The 500-kilogram dud was discovered at around 11:45 a.m. on Thursday during construction work between the Spree river and Ostkreuz station. A 500-metre exclusion zone was set up around the discovery site. Over the course of several hours, around 12,000 people had to leave the area. Three day-care centres were also evacuated.

Bomb defused shortly after midnight

Shortly after midnight, the police tweeted: "Our specialists from the LKA removed both detonators with the - you guessed it - high-pressure water jet cutting machine and detonated them on site." The defusing action took about three hours. The remains of the bomb were to be taken to the police blast site in Grunewald, where a fire with numerous explosions had broken out on August 4.