Status: 06.03.2023 00:41
The suspicion of a bomb in Laatzen was confirmed: duds were found at all three locations on Sunday. Explosive ordnance experts blew up a ten-hundredweight aerial bomb late in the evening, and another after midnight. A dud had already been defused beforehand.
At 11:30 p.m., the city of Laatzen tweeted: “The bomb on the B443 has been successfully detonated.” 50 minutes later, the city also reported completion of another site on Erich-Panitz-Straße, but asked the residents to be patient. The evacuated area was not yet released. The approximately 20,000 people affected, who had to leave their apartments and houses on Sunday morning from 7 a.m., can only return at night, explained Mayor Kai Eggert. Meals and care were taken care of in the “Blue School”.
People in the restricted area disrupt work
According to the police, the ordnance experts were repeatedly disturbed on Sunday by people who had been in the restricted area without permission – even in the evening hours. Accordingly, some people were taken into custody. Around 9 p.m., the city tweeted that the work will continue for longer. Only a five-hundredweight bomb on private property on Debberode has already been defused.
The parents of children who live in the area cordoned off for many hours should therefore decide for themselves whether to send their children to school on Monday. An apology is enough, the schools are informed, it said on the Website of the city of Laatzen.
Trains diverted, A37 partially closed
Because of the bomb clearance, train traffic has been diverted on the north-south axis between Hanover and Göttingen since Sunday noon, as announced by Deutsche Bahn. Travelers had to plan more time on this route. The A37 was also closed from the Hanover-South motorway junction in the direction of Hanover and from Wülferoder Straße in the direction of Kassel, as the city of Laatzen announced on its website.
1,000 helpers in action
Meanwhile, the city of Laatzen thanked the around 1,000 helpers on Twitter. “In addition to fire brigades and the police, the German Red Cross, the Johanniter, the Technical Relief Agency and the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund are on duty today,” it said.
The police had checked the entire restricted area with a helicopter with a thermal imaging camera to locate people in the restricted area. The residents in Laatzen-Mitte, parts of Rethen and Grasdorf as well as parts of Hanover-Kronsberg and Expo Park Süd had to leave their homes early in the morning. Among other things, they were cared for at a collection point.
More than 150 tons of ordnance in 2021
The Lower Saxony Ministry of the Interior assumes that the number of duds will increase in the coming period due to many construction projects. The year 2021 was already loud in Lower Saxony Report of the explosive ordnance disposal service, around 156 tons of ordnance from both world wars recovered and rendered harmless – around 45 tons more than in 2020. In every tenth case, bombs were detonated directly at the site where they were found.
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