Final information on the bomb find
Joint media information from the Chemnitz Police Department and the City of Chemnitz
At 11.22 pm, the all-clear was given by the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Service - the 250-kilogram American fragmentation bomb found on Tuesday morning had been defused.
This was preceded by evacuation measures in a radius around the site where the explosive device was found on the grounds of a building site at Hübschmannstraße 3 from 3.30 pm until around 9 pm.
The evacuations were not without problems. Residents refused to leave their homes. Others returned to their homes after the evacuation. Such incidents significantly delayed the evacuations. In one case, a man even attacked a policewoman with his walking stick, slightly injuring her. The sometimes irresponsible, premature reporting by individual media outlets also led to emergency services being tied up when their deployment would have been more necessary elsewhere.
At the same time, many people had to be evacuated lying down, which required an increased effort on the part of the emergency services. In total, over 17,500 residents were affected by the evacuation. This was the largest evacuation measure in Chemnitz to date. A total of 1545 affected residents in the restricted area used the accommodation provided in the Hartmannhalle and in the gymnasiums of the Dr.-Wilhelm-André-Gymnasium, the Oberschule Altendorf and the Gebrüder-Grimm-Grundschule. 168 local residents were temporarily accommodated in retirement and nursing homes as well as the Küchwald hospital.
The extensive road closures caused considerable traffic disruption in the city centre. Train services and local public transport were cancelled during the defusing operation.
The city of Chemnitz set up a citizens' hotline from 12 noon, which recorded around 3300 calls by the time the evacuation was cancelled.
A total of over 610 emergency services were deployed. 411 members of the professional fire brigade, the volunteer fire brigades and the city administration were supported by around 200 police officers, including officers from the Saxon riot police, police trainees and members of the guard police.
In view of the large number of primary school pupils affected by the evacuation and the duration of the evacuation and defusing, classes at Pablo Neruda Primary School were cancelled on 26 October 2016. Emergency care will be provided at the school for pupils who cannot be looked after by their families.
We would like to thank all the emergency services involved for their co-operation in what was probably the largest evacuation in the history of the city of Chemnitz.