Photo Gallery A Blast from the Past
Late on Tuesday evening in Munich, authorities detonated a bomb leftover from World War II that had been discovered at a construction site in the center of the city.
The explosion took place after thousands of residents had been evacuated and several streets and subway stations closed. Nobody was injured in the blast.
The concussion of the blast could be heard across the city and windows in the neighborhood were shattered.
A local seamstress stands behind the shattered window of her workship.
By Wednesday morning, most residents had been allowed to return to their homes, though officials were still checking for damage to nearby buildings. Here, a destroyed shop window in a street in the neighborhood of Schwabing, where the explosive was found.
Initially, officials tried to defuse the bomb, an American model used sparingly in World War II. But its detonator, a chemical delay-action trigger, proved uncooperative.
A controlled explosion proved to be the only solution. Officials stacked sandbags and hay bails around the explosive to limit the concussion. Tufts of flaming hay started several rooftop fires, but they were quickly extinguished.
Hundreds of fire fighters and police officers were on hand to ensure that nobody was hurt.
Finds of World War II bombs are not uncommon in Germany and every major city has a bomb squad trained in defusing them. Here, Günther Sobieralski and Andreas West, both experts in defusing bombs, speak to the press about the bomb found in Munich.
Thousands of people were evacuated from the area and had to spend the night in emergency shelters set up by the Bavarian Red Cross.
Many of those who were evacuated were allowed to return to their homes in the early morning hours of Wednesday.
Officials evacuated buildings in a radius of one kilometer from the site of the bomb.
Several major arterials were also closed as were three subway stations.
Officials estimate that some 2,500 World War II-era bombs remained buried beneath Munich. This year, there have been four significant discoveries of unexploded ordnance.
The bomb was covered with sandbags prior to the detonation in an effort to limit the concussion.
The bomb was found on Monday during construction at a trendy bar in the Munich neighborhood of Schwabing.
Initially, authorities had hoped to detonate the bomb during the day. But efforts to evacuate people and remove parked cars took longer than expected.
