WARSAW (AP) – Some 14,000 people were evacuated in the eastern Polish town of Lublin yesterday after a construction worker uncovered a massive unexploded bomb.
The police, Territorial Defense troops and city transport were helping in the evacuation, which must take place before military engineers can remove the bomb and take it away for neutralisation, according to the town hall spokesperson, Katarzyna Duma.
Roads in the area have been closed.
Duma said the residents were being taken to safety in schools and other large buildings.
They have been instructed to turn off gas, water and electricity in their homes, close the windows and doors and to take their IDs and necessary medication with them.
Residents should be able to return home in the early afternoon.
Builders uncovered the 250-kilogramme bomb buried in the ground during works on a new residential area on Thursday.
There was a Polish airplane factory and an airport there before World War II that could have been the target of wartime bombings. Under Nazi German occupation there was a prison and a labour camp there.
