The World War II bomb in the Offenbach district of Bürgel has been defused. After an hour-long delay, the explosive ordnance clearance service has rendered the 250-kilogram bomb harmless at 00:10, said Lord Mayor Felix Schwenke (SPD). The area around the site between Mainzer Ring and Karl-Herdt-Weg was reopened shortly afterwards.

A total of around 400 civil protection personnel and around 232 police officers from the city and district of Offenbach, Frankfurt, Groß-Gerau, Main-Taunus-Kreis and Main-Kinzig-Krei were deployed. They all secured the 750-metre perimeter around the site.

The defusing of the bomb planned for the evening was initially delayed by several hours, as the evacuation of the affected area took longer than expected. Around 100 people had to be transported lying down by emergency services and partly transported to hospitals – according to the city, this is an unusually high number. A helicopter with a thermal imaging camera was deployed to ensure that there were no more people in the danger zone. Shortly before 22 p.m., the city announced on Twitter that the eviction was nearing completion.

In the afternoon, a crisis team had started work on the instructions of Lord Mayor Schenke. Police, fire brigade and the explosive ordnance clearance service were already on site shortly after the find. In a radius of about 750 meters around the site, an evacuation of the houses was ordered. According to the city, up to 8700 people are affected.

Road users were asked to avoid the area between Offenbacher Straße/Langstraße in the west and Geleitsweg/Eduard-Oehler-Straße in the south as well as Arendsstraße and Rohrstraße in the north as far as possible, as the roads were closed off in the early evening. The population was asked to leave the area as soon as possible. Those who are not mobile could have the police organise transport via emergency services. A care centre for the duration of the evacuation was set up in the Ernst Reuter School.

Only on Wednesday evening, a 250-kilogram World War II bomb was rendered harmless with a controlled detonation on the premises of the technology group Heraeus in Hanau. As a precaution, 16,000 people had to be brought to safety there, including patients of a hospital.