Hungarian tech store closed by World War II bomb
Masco, a Hungarian chain of stores specializing in property surveillance and protection tech, has asked customers to avoid its head office because an unexploded World War II bomb has been found nearby. An announcement sent to The Register – one of a daily torrent of press releases bafflingly sent to our corrections line – …
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Thursday 29th July 2021 09:59 GMT fpx
Still happens all across Germany with depressing regularity at pretty much every large construction site in every major city. This one was in May: https://www.hessenschau.de/panorama/erleichterung-nach-bombensprengung-in-frankfurt-,bombe-frankfurt-nordend-100.html. In this case, the bomb squad decided that defusing the bomb was too risky, and it had to be detonated in place, necessitating the evacuation of 25.000 people including a large hospital in a 700m radius.
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Thursday 29th July 2021 10:59 GMT EvilDrSmith
Yep.
Routine Construction Industry ground risk in the UK, Germany and much of Europe.
In the UK there are Construction Industry publications giving guidance on assessing and addressing the risk, and numerous specialist companies that deal with it (to varying degrees of competence).
UXB found and dealt with in Goole in the UK just last week on a housing development.
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Thursday 29th July 2021 15:36 GMT C R Mudgeon
North Africa as well
They still have a serious problem with land mines planted by both sides during WW 2.
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Saturday 31st July 2021 04:40 GMT David 132
This seems like a good opportunity to link to Bob Newhart's monologue on amateur bomb disposal...
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Thursday 29th July 2021 11:35 GMT teknopaul
been there done that
I found a bomb in concrete on the beaches of France as a kid. It came back past Dover security with out a hitch.
One sunny Sunday we chipped all the concrete off it with a hammer and one of my dad's wood chisels, got bored and left it in the gutter outside the house.
Upon return from the park a ww2 vet had seen it and called in the army.
Made a big ol bang when they popped it, threw sandbags 100 yards on to neighbours roofs, and blew a gas main underground.
I highly recommend playing around with unexploded bombs, fun for all the family.
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Thursday 29th July 2021 13:42 GMT rg287
Re: been there done that
An archaeologist friend was out in Jordan for a dig (WW1 Lawrence of Arabia type stuff). Lots of dugouts and spent casings. They dug up a larger cylinder which nobody was very sure about. A colleague took it back to the hotel and whilst they retired to the bar he went upstairs to consult a book and work out what it was.
About 20 minutes later they saw him pass by the bar quite quickly and head outside. He came back in shortly after, spoke to the receptionist and came into the bar.
"I'm pretty sure it was a rather obscure model of rifle grenade. I've popped it outside and told the staff about it. Probably not something we'll take home with us."
They added it to the "hazard" pile of suspect artefacts the next morning.
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Thursday 29th July 2021 14:28 GMT pip25
It did make the news here in Hungary as well
It just happens often enough that you find such reports around the same place where you see news articles about the latest road closures, bridge reconstruction work, etc.
What's less commonplace is how much the store's web designers seemed to be enjoying themselves. :)
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Friday 30th July 2021 04:18 GMT Aussie Doc
Optional sensible title here
Slightly OT but when I were a young 'un and first 'diagnosed' as colourblind (aged about six or seven - father made the discovery whilst trying to teach me snooker!) the list of occupations not likely opened for me included airline pilot, train driver and, yep, bomb disposal person.
Even in the military in my later years I wasn't allowed to work in stores responsible for ammo distribution - apparently eg red is real, blue is blanks, white is tracer or some such scheme - don't really remember the colour scheme since I didn't have to!
Seriously, though, hope nobody gets hurt even after all this time.
Stay safe everyone.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
