Thessaloniki starts evacuating 70,000 over WWII bomb

519b4653a31b40edbf55b875d04995ab_18Source: Aljazeera

Authorities in Greece’s second-biggest city, Thessaloniki, have begun evacuating some 70,000 residents ahead of an operation to defuse a 250kg unexploded World War II bomb.

The device, dropped during an air raid on the northern city in the 1940s, was unearthed in a densely populated area last week during works to expand fuel storage tanks.

Bomb disposal experts will attempt to tackle the device, found near a petrol station at a depth of 5.5m, on Sunday.

More than 300 disabled people and bed-bound patients were the first to move out on Saturday morning, at the start of what is being described as the biggest peacetime evacuation in Greece’s history.

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