Bomb (Air Delivered) event in Cologne area, Germany on Wed 3rd April 2024

500 kg unexploded bomb in Cologne: bomb defused on the Rhine – RTL was also affected The next bomb alarm in Cologne!

On Wednesday morning (April 3, 2024), an unexploded bomb from the Second World War was found during dredging work in the navigation channel in the Rhine near the Kennedy bank in Cologne-Deutz.
As the city of Cologne announced, it was an American ten hundredweight bomb (500 kg) with a rear impact detonator. Bomb defused in Cologne at 4:06 p.m

The defusing was carried out on Wednesday at 4:06 p.m. To do this, the danger area had to be cordoned off and evacuated. The explosive ordnance disposal service of the Düsseldorf district government (KBD) and the Cologne city public order office were on site.

To defuse it, the unexploded bomb was placed on a pontoon, a floating island, in the Rhine using an excavator. There it was rendered harmless and then lifted onto a truck and transported using a fire department crane. The danger zone was set by the KBD at 500 meters. The evacuation affected “only” around ten residents in the area - in other cases, several thousand people had to leave their homes when bombs were found in recent weeks and months.

In addition to the residents, there were numerous offices on site and the employees were also affected by the evacuation. Among other things, the entire RTL building had to be evacuated, as EXPRESS.de learned.

However, broadcasting operations continued, as a spokeswoman said. “We are therefore moving our studio outside without further ado and will continue to broadcast live from outside the evacuation zone “Point 12” and possibly also the later current RTL programs “Explosiv” and “Exclusiv” as well as ntv.” The Berlin RTL studio temporarily had the Directed all broadcasts.

Employees and guests of the Hyatt also had to leave the hotel because of the defusing.

Shipping traffic, rail traffic and buses on lines 132, 133 and 150 were also affected by the defusing. The following streets were closed to car traffic from around 2 p.m.:

     Konrad-Adenauer-Ufer / Karl-Band-Platz
     Gold Alley
     At the Domhof/Trankgasse
     Rhine bank tunnel height Maritim
     Auenweg
     Opladener Straße/Auenweg

The Deutz fair on the banks of the Rhine was not affected by the bomb defusal and the evacuations and operations could take place as planned.