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The largest WWII bomb ever found in Poland exploded underwater when navy divers tried to defuse it.
Weighing almost 5400 kg, including 2400 kg of explosive, the Tallboy bomb was dropped by Royal Air Force in 1945 in an attack on the German cruiser Lutzow.
More than 750 people were evacuated from the area near the Piast Canal, outside the city of Swinoujscie in northwestern Poland, where the weapon was discovered.
The canal connects the Baltic Sea with the Oder River on Poland’s border with Germany.
2nd Lt. Grzegorz Lewandowski, spokesman for the 8th Coastal Defense Flotilla, said no one was injured because all divers were at a safe distance from the blast.
The Tallboy bomb was dropped by the RAF in 1945
Polish navy demolition experts were trying to neutralize it underwater by remote deflagration, which means burning its explosives, but it blew up in the process.
“The deflagration process turned into detonation,” Second Lieutenant Lewandowski was quoted as saying by the state news agency PAP.
“The object can be considered neutralized, it will not pose any threat,” he continued, saying that “all the divers in the mine were outside the danger zone.
Swinoujscie contains a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, but a spokesman for the city’s mayor told PAP that no one was injured and no buildings were damaged.
The Tallboy bomb was designed by British aeronautical engineer Barnes Wallis and was used by the RAF to destroy large Nazi-controlled assets using underground discharges.
It was found under a waterway leading to the port of Szczecin during work to deepen the pass in September 2019.
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