A 250 kg US-made WW2 bomb was defused near Móricz Zsigmond square, a major transport hub in Budapest, midday on Sunday, the communications officer of the Hungarian army’s bomb squad Zita Markovics said.
The bomb was found on Monday at a construction site in an area that belongs to the Szent Margit Secondary School near the square.
Péter Debrődi, a member of the bomb squad, said that two detonators had to be removed from the bomb and one of them had been deformed which made the operation more difficult. The bomb will be transported to the Hungarian Army’s central disposal unit where it will be destroyed, he added.
A total of 686 flats inhabited by around 2,000 people had to be evacuated in the neighbourhood during the operation. The neighbouring streets and squares were closed and detours were implemented for public transport services.
According to estimates, around 10 percent of the bombs dropped on Budapest by the Allies during WW2 failed to detonate and some of them are still underground, Debrődi said.
Featured photo by Zoltán Mihádák/MTI