A 250 kg unexploded bomb from World War II was found at a construction site in Maribor
STA, 12 January 2022 – An unexploded World War II bomb was found at a construction site in Maribor. The place was closed as a precaution, and the bomb disposal team will neutralize and remove the device, which weighs 250 kilograms, on Sunday.
An explosive ordnance disposal team was dispatched to the scene after police received a report of an unexploded bomb on Tuesday afternoon and closed the area. The team decided to deactivate and remove the bomb on Sunday, early in the afternoon.
All residents will be evacuated from the 300-meter zone around the place, said Maribor Deputy Mayor Samo Peter Medved and called on people to strictly follow the rules and instructions.
In addition to evacuating locals in the 300-meter area, movement will be restricted in the 600-meter area around the site. People will be allowed to stay in their homes in the area and will not be allowed to move outside, either on foot or otherwise.
The Maribor Police Administration called on the media to withdraw from the scene for their own safety and not to interfere in the work of experts on the spot.
“Once the bomb is removed, we will inform you and, if necessary, we will inform the public of all measures taken in relation to the removal of the bomb,” they wrote.
Maribor, Slovenia’s second largest city, was one of the most bombed cities in the former Yugoslavia during World War II.
The most high-profile find in recent years was the discovery of two unexploded bombs near the city’s largest shopping center and health center UKC Maribor in October 2019, when their removal also led to the evacuation of people from the area.
This time, the device was found in the settlement of Tezno in the southeastern part of Maribor, and the removal plan is the same as the one that took place in 2019.
Darko Zonič, the head of the removal team, who was also in charge of removing the bomb in November 2019, said that in the worst case, the device, a typical two-lighter aircraft bomb, would have to be detonated.
The Maribor municipality, meanwhile, announced that the city council adopted a new decree last autumn on protection against natural and other disasters, including protection against unexploded ordnance.
The regulation provides for three levels of danger, and in areas with a higher or medium level of threat, a preliminary site inspection is required before construction can begin, due to the possibility of finding bomb remnants.
“Unfortunately, this did not happen in this case, but fortunately there were no consequences,” said the deputy mayor, confirming that the Tezno area is one of those where the probability of finding unexploded ordnance is quite high.
Between January 1944 and April 1945, 29 bombings were carried out in the Maribor area and a total of 15,795 bombs were dropped.
The possibility of finding unexploded ordnance in Allied bombing areas is thus relatively high, as is the possibility of an accident due to the uncontrolled activation of bombs, the municipality warns.