Berlin threatened with travel chaos after 1.5 tonne bomb found at central station
Photo: DPA
Construction workers at a building site north of Berlin Hauptbahnhof have discovered a bomb from the Second World War. The explosive is set to be defused on Friday, and public transport is going to be severely impacted.
An 800-metre area around the bomb will need to be evacuated, according to the Berliner Morgenpost. That will mean that regional and long distance trains will no longer be able to arrive at the central station.
According to Tagesspiegel, the north-south S-Bahn tunnel will also be closed down, leading to cancellations to key lines including the S1.
“The operation will be big and it will be difficult,” a police spokesperson said.
It is still not clear if the Hauptbahnhof itself will have to be evacuated during the disposal operation. But it is also certain that buses and trams will not be able to reach the station during the evacuation, according to the Berliner Zeitung.
It is also not clear whether the Charite, one of Berlin’s major hospital’s, will also have to be cleared as it is located in the vicinity of the central station. If an evacuation is necessary, 13,000 personnel at the hospital will have to move out, as well as thousands of patients.
Preparations for the bomb disposal will begin at 9am on Friday.
The bomb was discovered several days ago, according to a police spokesman and weighs around 1,500 kg.
