WWII bomb control-detonated in western Germany

Bomb disposal experts successfully control-detonated a 250 kg World War II bomb in western Germany's Cologne city after about 5,000 people were evacuated late Thursday evening, a city spokesman said. The bomb was found on Thursday during construction work near the Uni-Center, a 45-storey apartment building housing about 2,000 people. Because of the tricky construction of the fuse, bomb disposal experts had to opt for a controlled detonation of the bomb, and residents within a radius of 300 meters of the detonation site were evacuated. Local media said another World War II bomb was successfully defused almost at the same time in Neuss, about 40 km northwest of Cologne. More than 1,800 people were evacuated. Nearly 69 years after the end of World War II, thousands of unexploded bombs are still believed buried in Germany. On Jan. 3, a construction worker manning a digger was killed when he accidentally struck a bomb during excavation work in Euskirchen in Germany's western state of North Rhine-Westphalia