Greece begins evacuation of 75,000 people after discovery of 500lb WWII bomb

The second largest city in Greece has begun evacuating around 75,000 people to clear the way for experts to defuse a 500lb (226kg) unexploded Second World War bomb.

The device was found in Thessaloniki, in the country's north, earlier in February, during construction works near a petrol station. It is believed to have been dropped during a 1940s air raid. 

Most of the evacuees will be moved from the western suburb of Kordelio, where a state of emergency has been declared. 

Around 1,000 police officers and 300 volunteers are helping with the evacuation, and anyone living within a 1.2 mile radius of the site is being urged to leave.

Officials knocked on house doors and rung bells on the morning of the operation, to ensure people left their homes. Many did so in their cars, but buses were also laid on, taking people to schools, sports halls and cultural centers elsewhere in the city, where they can get food and shelter. 

"It's the first time something like this is happening in Greece," Thessaloniki Deputy Governor Voula Patoulidou told The Associated Press. 

The evacuation is the largest in the country's peace time history, according to reports.

Businesses



are expected to close, churches have cancelled services and petrol stations have been told to empty their tanks. 

An earlier evacuation attempt - moving just several hundred people - was later abandoned after officials realised the scale of the problem. 

The device is expected to be familiar to the disposal experts working on it and will take around six hours to defuse. 

They have successfully dealt with a number of similar devices found in less populated areas, including near Thessaloniki’s Macedonia international airport.

Army bomb disposal experts will initially attempt to defuse the bomb's detonator, and then transport it to an army firing range, where they will figure out what further steps to take, said army spokesman Col. Nikos Fanios. 

Col. Fanios said the device's exterior was too degraded to be able to determine whether it was a German or an Allied bomb. But one resident says he recalls the day it fell. 

"The bombing was done by English and American planes on Sept. 17, 1944. It was Sunday lunchtime," said Giorgos Gerasimou, 86, whose home is half a mile away. 

The Allies were targeting local German rail facilities, he said.