Ten thousand people were evacuated from the center of Rennes, France, this weekend after an unexploded British bomb from World War II was found, officials said.
The center of Rennes, in Brittany, looked like a ghost town, The Sunday Telegraph in London reported.
"I remember the bombing raids during the war when hundreds were killed," said Maurice Leclerc, 81, one of the evacuees. "The fact that the bombs are still disrupting our lives all these years on is truly incredible."
In eastern France, 4,500 people were moved out of Woippy, in the suburbs of Metz, as crews defused explosives around a former German supply depot. It is being converted into a bus station, but was bombed so much during the war that its basement and foundations are littered with British and American ordnance.
France's mine clearance office recovers some 1,000 tons of unexploded munitions from both world wars every year, and had seen around 650 of its staff killed since 1945.
Many of the devices are still live. Particularly dangerous are artillery shells containing chemicals like mustard gas, which was used in World War I.
UPI
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