Unexploded WWII bomb finds in Netherlands, Poland trigger security precautions

This week saw construction workers at two vastly different sites in The Netherlands and Poland hold their breath as they accidentally uncovered undetonated explosives dating back to World War II.

At a site for a new university facility in southern Poland workers uncovered more than 200 unexploded World War II anti-tank mines, prompting a major bomb disposal operation.

Army explosive ordnance disposal teams were dispatched this week to the construction site for a new residence building belonging to Jagiellonian University in the city of Krakow, according to Polish media reports.

Over the course of two days, investigators uncovered a large cache of wartime ordnance, most of it consisting of unused anti-tank mines. Police also reported the discovery of “a substance of unknown origin.”

Two sacks containing roughly 60 kilograms of powder were also found at the site, a senior firefighter specializing in hazardous materials told local broadcaster TVP Krakow. He added that the mines themselves did not contain detonators.

Authorities cordoned off the surrounding area as a precaution while army sappers safely removed the explosives for neutralization, police said in a statement.

Construction work has since been suspended until a specialist company carries out additional inspections next week to ensure no further dangerous materials remain buried underground.

A police spokesperson noted that the location had previously been inspected several years ago, when dozens of unexploded devices were also discovered. According to authorities, the area served as a military training ground until the 1970s.

Coincidentally, on the same day a Second World War II bomb was unearthed near a train station in The Netherlands. A massive aircraft bomb weighing over 200 kilograms was discovered near the railway in the town of Weesp, just southeast of Amsterdam. The find temporarily halted railway traffic in the region. 

A 250-metre radius around the find was cordoned off, with police, the fire service and ambulances all on the scene. Residents of nearby houseboats were temporarily evacuated.

Weesp and the surrounding area were bombed several times during the Second World War, particularly because of their strategic position along the railway line and the Vecht branch of the Rhine river.

By Nazrin Sadigova