On Tuesday, 20 October, a sapper patrol will defuse a German SC 250 aerial bomb weighing about 250 kg at ul. Kolejowa in Wrocław. About 3,000 people must be evacuated from the area, and road traffic in the operation zone will be halted, as well as rail traffic briefly.
Operation hours
According to a statement from the Press Office of the Wrocław City Hall, cited by TVN24, sappers will remove the unexploded ordnance between 10:00 and 10:30 a.m. The payload will be transported to the Świętoszów training ground and destroyed there. People must leave the evacuation zone by 9:30 a.m. at the latest.
Earlier statements gave different times (evacuation to end at 8:30 a.m., operation from 9:00 a.m.). The deadlines from the city’s latest statement apply: leaving the zone by 9:30 a.m., operation 10:00–10:30 a.m.
The bomb was found on Thursday, 15 October, at a construction site at ul. Kolejowa 8–10, where a hotel and office complex is being built, on the site of the former “szkieletor” (unfinished concrete structure). After the find, work was halted and workers were evacuated.
Who is affected
The zone covers a radius of about 300 m from the find site. According to wroclaw.pl and the city’s statement, the following house numbers on these streets are being evacuated:
- Kolejowa 2–56, Prosta 34–46, Lelewela 1–23, Grabiszyńska 2–36,
- Jęczmienna 12–29, Pszenna 12–28, Owsiana 1, Stysia 31–41a,
- Zielińskiego 1–53a, Piłsudskiego 9–29, Skwierzyńska 1–16, Swobodna 73,
- pl. Rozjezdny and pl. Legionów 9–14.
The street name alone does not determine whether a building is affected – the house number does. The evacuation point is the National Forum of Music on pl. Wolności. People who need transport can use Municipal Transport Company (MPK) buses, which will wait at the junction of ul. Grabiszyńska and Szpitalna and at ul. Piłsudskiego and Kościuszki (pl. Legionów). The city office advises taking documents, a phone and medication, and closing windows and doors. Return home will be possible after the operation ends and the services issue a statement. Classes at the Technical School of Chemistry on ul. Skwierzyńska will also not take place on Tuesday.
Traffic disruptions
From 10:00 a.m., a complete closure of road traffic is planned in the operation area, including ul. Piłsudskiego and Grabiszyńska in both directions. From 10:30 a.m., rail traffic on the viaduct will stop for about 20–30 minutes. Drone flights are banned over the zone.
PKP PLK (Polish Rail Infrastructure Manager) announces changes to train services on Tuesday morning, until the end of the operation. According to Gazeta Wrocławska, some trains, including the Jelenia Góra – Wrocław Główny route, will be replaced by replacement bus services; PKP PLK will publish the full list of departures.
What it means
Residents of the listed addresses must be away from home by 9:30 a.m. Drivers should avoid Piłsudskiego and Grabiszyńska from 10:00 a.m., and rail passengers should check the timetable before travelling to the Wrocław Główny station. Questions about the evacuation can be directed to the Crisis Management Centre at 71 770 22 22.
World War II unexploded ordnance is relatively common finds in Wrocław – as PAP reports, the last larger evacuation here was in July, near ul. Trzemeskiej. We wrote about another dangerous find in our article about a shell that exploded in an apartment.
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