A big crater is pictured on a corn field after a bomb from the World War exploded in Halbach, Germany, Monday, June 24, 2019. The bomb must have stayed under the corn field since the World War until the chemical detonator reacted in the end. No one was injured. (Boris Roessler/dpa via AP)
It’s a blast that may have been more than 70 years in the making.
A huge crater in the middle of a cornfield in rural Germany is believed to have been made by a buried World War II bomb.
Locals in Limburg say they heard a loud explosion in the middle of the night — then woke to find the 33-foot-wide crater in the isolated field. No one was hurt.
Explosives experts believe the shape of the 4-foot-deep crater was almost certainly created by a bomb, according to news agency DPA. Many unexploded devices are still found in Germany, despite the war having ended in 1945.
A big crater is pictured on a corn field after a bomb from the World War exploded in Halbach, Germany, Monday, June 24, 2019. The bomb must have stayed under the corn field since the World War until the chemical detonator reacted in the end. No one was injured. (Boris Roessler/dpa via AP)
A bomb disposal service spokesman told Agence France-Presse it was “highly possible” an old bomb was involved.
“The crater was examined on Monday by an explosive ordnance clearance service to find possible fragments,” a police spokesman told the agency. “The area was used for target practice during the Second World War.”
A local government spokesman told German newspaper Bild that the bomb most likely had a chemical-based delayed timer that finally eroded.
With Post wires
This story originally appeared in the New York Post.
Get a daily look at what’s developing in science and technology throughout the world.