The biggest World War II bomb ever found in Poland exploded underwater Tuesday, October 13, as navy divers tried to defuse it.
More than 750 people had been evacuated from the area near the Piast Canal outside the town of Swinoujscie where the Tallboy bomb used by Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) was found.
It weighed nearly 5,400 kg, including 2,400 kg of explosive.
The spokesman of the 8th Coastal Defense Flotilla, Second-Lieutenant Grzegorz Lewandowski, told the state-run news agency PAP that the object can be considered as neutralized, it will not pose any more threat and all mine divers were outside the danger zone when it was detonated. Swinoujscie contains a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, but a spokesman for the town’s mayor told PAP no one was injured and no infrastructure had been damaged.
The Piast Canal connects the Baltic Sea with the Oder River on Poland’s border with Germany. The bomb was dropped by the RAF in 1945 in an attack on the German cruiser Lutzow.