Drone photo shows crater WWII bomb explosion in Germany

A drone photo shows a massive crater resulting from a bomb explosion in Germany. The crater is in a barley field near Ahlbach, Germany and according to experts is the result of a WWII bomb explosion that occurred on June 24 of this year. Officials say that the inexplicable explosion that shook residents of a central German town during the early morning hours last Sunday was “with almost absolute certainty” a World War II bomb. Drone photos later captured the crater that resulted from the nighttime explosion.

Drone photo shows crater WWII bomb explosion

The crater captured in the drone photo measures 33 feet wide and 13 feet deep, according to a statement from Police Headquarters Westhessen – Wiesbaden in Germany. In one of the photos, a young man and woman are standing on the edge.

“With the former railway depot, we were quite a bomb target at the end of the Second World War,” city spokesman Johannes Laubach told the German news outlet Hessenschau. “We can be glad that the farmer was not in the field.”

Geek reports that the German police initially had said that “no definitive indication” had been found of a suspected unexploded bomb. However, after close inspection of the crater, bomb disposal experts concluded that “with almost absolute certainty” it had been caused by the explosion of a WWII bomb. They believe it was a 550-pound bomb that was dropped from a plane decades ago.

Residents of the German town Ahlbach were rattled by the sudden explosion, which was strong enough to feel like an earthquake. It happened around 4 am last Sunday. There were no reports of injuries or casualties from the explosion. According to BBC News, unexploded WWII bombs are regularly found in Germany. After decades, as the detonators start to deteriorate, they can often explode without any outside forces acting on them, experts say.

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Photo Credit: Boris Roessler / picture alliance via Getty Images