Bomb dating back to World War II explodes after deactivation fails in UK town

Panic struck a town in the United Kingdom when a World War II-era bomb went off during a deactivation exercise. Hundreds of residents in Great Yarmouth in Norflok had been evacuated ahead of the exercise, British website Metro reported.

The Norflok Police said the ‘unplanned detonation’ to ‘disarm’ the explosive triggered an explosion, spewing smoke and debris into the air. The constabulary assistant chief constable Nick Davision told the website that the bomb went off shortly after the detonation process had begun.

The police shared a clip of the explosion on Twitter. “The unexploded bomb in #GreatYarmouth detonated earlier during work to disarm it. Our drone captured the moment. We can confirm that no one was injured. Public safety has been at the heart of our decision making all the way through this operation, which we know has been lengthy”, the tweet red.

According to the report, the police had taped off the area within hours of the three-feet-long bomb being discovered during bridge construction. The residents staying within the 200-400 metre cordon were ‘strongly advised’ to leave as per the evacuation notice.

The Army’s Explosive Ordnance Device (EOD) team stated earlier this week that if the bomb detonated, it could damage two main gas pipelines. But the gas distribution network Cadent tweeted on Tuesday, “Our team has carried out a close inspection of our gas pipes in the vicinity. There is no indication the blast has caused damage to our assets – gas continues to flow safely.”

The security force confirmed that no physical injuries or casualties had been reported. “The device exploded during slow burn out work to disarm the remaining explosives. All army and emergency service personnel have been accounted for, and damage is being assessed,” the force said.

In December last year, a BBC report also said that Wales in southwest Great Britain may potentially have thousands of unexploded World War II bombs because there were 743 air raids over the country, each containing between five and 30,000 devices, and many are still lying undetonated.