Boulogne-Billancourt: Police
evacuated 6,000 people from a French town on Sunday in order to
destroy an unexploded bomb dropped by an allied plane in World
War II, authorities said.
Thousands of residents, some carrying suitcases and pets,
flocked out of their homes and into the streets at dawn as
authorities cleared the neighbourhood to deal with the bomb
found last week, an AFP reporter saw.
The bomb -- weighing half a tonne, of which half was
explosives -- was found on a building site on the grounds of
the old Renault car factory in Boulogne-Billancourt, just west
of Paris.
The allies bombed the factory, which at the time was
producing cars and under Nazi control, several times in 1942
and 1943.
"As it is, the device is inactive and poses no immediate
danger, but the authorities must dismantle it in the safest
possible conditions," said a statement from the local town
hall.
"As it is, the device is inactive and poses no immediate
danger, but the authorities must dismantle it in the safest
possible conditions," said a statement from the local town
hall.
The police said 400 officers and staff were involved in
the operation.
PTI
