According to initial findings, there was no major damage, said head of operations johannes bergmann. Against 22.30 o’clock residents were allowed to return to their homes – almost seven hours after the evacuation had begun.
The 500-kilo bomb was located in the immediate vicinity of the busy highway 40. The affected section of the expressway was completely closed during the blast. Parts of the christmas market had to remain closed. Shops also stopped selling. Long traffic jams in the city center due to blocked roads.
In a radius of 750 meters around the site of the ten-cent bomb, around 4200 people had to leave their apartments and houses – including the residents of an old people’s home. The evacuations had taken longer than initially expected. "We have an extremely rough logistical job here," was the response team’s response to the situation.
Residents reacted calmly to the discovery of the bomb. In duisburg, people were "already sufficiently bomb-stricken not to lose their nerve," said one resident.
The explosive ordnance disposal service had discovered the bomb by analyzing aerial photographs in the immediate vicinity of the duisburg-hafen junction on the A40 autobahn. To steam the detonation, about 700 tons of sand were piled on the bomb. The sand had been brought to duisburg by 30 trucks. In addition, the site was secured with planks and straw bales.
In munich, the detonation of a bomb at the end of august caused millions of euros in damage. In mid-september, the controlled detonation of a blind passageway in downtown viersen caused considerable property damage. Both bombs had acid scale.