Greek army destroys World War II bomb found during excavation for luxury development near Athens

ATHENS, Greece — Greek army consultants Thursday destroyed an unexploded World War II bomb came upon during paintings on an enormous city development undertaking at a coastal space south of Athens.

Authorities stated the 500-pound bomb used to be destroyed and not using a detonation after site visitors within the space used to be halted for greater than two hours and several other within reach condo blocks have been evacuated as a precaution.

The city development undertaking will come with a park, buying groceries shops, inns, a on line casino and more than one recreational amenities near the beach Glyfada space, south of the capital. Work were given underway remaining 12 months and is because of be finished in 2026.

“Everything went well, and we thank all the agencies involved: the specialized army unit, the fire department and the traffic police,” Glyfada Mayor Giorgos Papanikolaou informed journalists near the website.

“As the excavations progress, more unexploded ordnance may be discovered.”

The development undertaking will use land that used to be prior to now the website of Athens’ global airport prior to it used to be closed in 2001 and moved to a brand new location. The website additionally hosted a number of carrying venues during the Athens Olympics in 2004 and in short housed a camp for asylum seekers during the refugee disaster of 2015-16.

The airfield has additionally been used for a long time to give a boost to a United States army base that closed within the early Nineteen Nineties. During World War II and the Nazi-led profession of Greece, the airfield used to be bombed through the allies.