Hauts-de

Published: April 19, 2026 23:11

Reading time: 2min – video: 2min

15,000 residents from three suburbs of Paris were evacuated on Sunday, April 19 for a demining operation of a World War II bomb. The bomb was destroyed by explosion.

An explosion and a loud noise, heard for kilometers around. The World War II bomb has just been neutralized in Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine) on Sunday, April 19. An hour later, we access the site where the bomb was, of which little remains. “This is what we call the tail section. It was located at the rear,” described Alexandre Brugière, prefect of Hauts-de-Seine. Before its destruction, the bomb weighed 225 kg, half of which was explosives.

The bomb was discovered under a construction site and was being held in place by wooden shims. Residents living within a 450-meter perimeter in the north of Paris had to be evacuated to defuse it. During the operation, firefighters were stationed on rooftops, and police officers cordoned off the area. 15,000 people were asked to leave. Rescuers went door-to-door in the buildings. “They are right in any case. We cannot know what could happen. It could be defused, or it could explode all of a sudden,” commented a man who had just left his apartment.

The delicate operation began at 10:30 a.m. The bomb was carried by a construction vehicle and placed in a hole. “Once it was placed in a hole, we tried to dismantle it. We couldn’t. So, from that point on, the only option left was to add more explosives to it and detonate it,” explained Christophe Pezron, director of the central laboratory of the Police Prefecture.

Explosives were placed on the bomb. It was then buried and covered with sand to explode underground. “We heard a loud boom, and that’s it. It didn’t even move,” recounted a resident. How many bombs from the last century are still buried under our feet? The number is difficult to estimate. These devices are regularly found in France. According to experts, several more decades are still needed to fully clean our territory of the remnants of the past.