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Berlin (CNN) -- Bomb squads in Germany successfully defused on Sunday two bombs and disposed of an additional air-dropped military device that had caused an evacuation of historic proportions in a city in the country's west.

The 45,000 evacuated residents of the city of Koblenz, situated on the Rhine and Moselle Rivers, were allowed to return home.

Workers rendered inert the two bombs, one 4,000-pound "air mine" and a smaller high-density explosive bomb. Then they destroyed a third non-explosive device by way of a controlled detonation, according to the Koblenz fire department.

The fire brigade had pre-warned the population about the controlled detonation to allay possible fears that one of the powerful bombs may have exploded.

Life had come to a standstill in the western German city of Koblenz, where 45,000 people -- nearly half of the city´s population -- had been evacuated after the discovery of several dangerous World War II bombs.

"It's the largest German evacuation since the end of the war," fire brigade spokesman Ronald Eppelsheim said Sunday.

For 65 years, the Rhine River hid two bombs and an fog-producing device that were dropped by American and British warplanes in the last years of the war. When water levels dropped to record lows last week, the bombs were finally found.

WWII bomb in Rhine near Koblenz successfully defused

...About 600 tonnes of unexploded ordnance are discovered in Germany every year, our correspondent says. Everyone living within a 2km (1.25 mile) radius of the bomb site was ordered to leave the area.

Shelters with 12,000 beds were set up in schools to accommodate those with no other place to go. However, only 500 people were reported to have made use of them. Most residents went to stay with friends or relatives.

BBC

Defusing Berlin's WWII bomb legacy
20 June 2011

Ralf Kirschnick gets called out several times a month to stand over a lump of death which failed to explode more than six decades ago.

His job is to make bombs safe, either by leaving a detonator and walking a long way away before exploding the whole lot, or - if it is too close to people and property - by defusing it.

BBC

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speigel online

A trophy for your false history.