Huge World War II bomb explodes in Poland during defusing process
A titanic Tallboy bomb from World War II detonated underwater in a northwestern Poland canal on Tuesday as naval divers conducted an operation to defuse the explosive.
Nobody was injured in the blast near the Baltic Sea. The device, the largest unexploded WWII bomb ever uncovered in Poland, had an estimated 50% chance of blowing during the defusing operation, according to the BBC.
More than 750 people were cleared from the area near the town of Swinoujscie ahead of the operation.
In 1945, British warplanes dropped the explosive during an attack on a German warship in what was then Nazi Germany, according to Deutsche Welle, a German public broadcaster.
The bomb clocked in at 5.4 tons. Its explosion reportedly reverberated in Swinoujscie.
“All divers were outside the danger zone,” said Lt. Cmdr. Grzegorz Lewandowski, a spokesperson for the Polish Navy’s 8th Coastal Defense Flotilla, according to BBC.
With News Wire Services
