An unexploded British aerial bomb from World War II discovered in the German town of Viersen had to be detonated on Monday night, tearing a crater in a pedestrian zone in the town center and causing major damage to surrounding buildings, two of which were rendered uninhabitable, authorities said.
It was the second such incident in three weeks after a wartime bomb was blown up in the center of Munich at the end of August.
Unexploded aerial bombs from the war are still found on an almost weekly basis during construction work in Germany and experts have been warning that the detonating mechanisms are becoming so brittle that it is increasingly difficult to defuse the bombs safely.
The 250-kilogram (550-pound) bomb found in Viersen, northwestern Germany, had a chemical delay-action fuse. A total of 8,000 people had to be evacuated from their homes on Monday afternoon.
Bomb disposal specialists decided they had no option but to conduct a controlled explosion at the site because defusing the bomb or even moving it could have caused it to detonate.
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