Bomb disposal in Cologne: evacuation on July 17th for 36,000 residents!

Bomb disposal in Cologne: evacuation on July 17th for 36,000 residents!

Things will be exciting again in Cologne next weekend: There will be a bomb defusal in Lindenthal on July 17, 2025, which is already causing concern and excitement among residents. This is not the first time this year that the city has been confronted with the legacy of World War II. A major evacuation and defusing also had to be carried out on June 4, 2025. Overall, the people of Cologne are regularly confronted with explosive ordnance that is found during construction and exploratory work, which is reflected in the number of evacuation operations.

Again Cologne City Gazette reported that a total of 31 bombs were discovered in Cologne in 2023, 21 of which were explosive bombs. Over 36,000 people had to be evacuated during the operations, which shows how high the number of those affected is. The largest evacuation took place in August at the Gereon barracks, when around 7,800 residents were affected. Enormous resources are used to deal with such a situation: last year alone, 14,000 working hours were spent on this.

Costs and challenges in mitigation

A central issue in bomb disposal is cost. While the state of North Rhine-Westphalia covers the costs of defusing, removing and destroying the explosive ordnance, the local authorities and property owners must bear the costs of securing, cordoning off and evacuating. Loud Express The costs for explosive ordnance disposal in 2019 amounted to an impressive 22.7 million euros - a number that may have grown since then. For the city, the estimated costs for a large operation are between 60,000 and 260,000 euros. The largest expenses are personnel costs, which can amount to between 5,000 and 100,000 euros or more.

For the people of Cologne, the discovery of bombs and other explosive devices is not only a question of security, but also an enormous logistical effort. The operations resulted in a total of 208 medical transports to ensure that all residents, especially those over 75, could be evacuated safely. It remains to be seen whether the number of discoveries can be counteracted. In particular, there are complaints that the need to dispose of explosive ordnance will also have an impact on future generations, as Interior Minister Herbert Reul states.

Current developments in explosive ordnance disposal

A look at the latest developments shows that the number of bombs found in North Rhine-Westphalia has decreased slightly overall in recent years. In 2023, 1,133 explosive ordnances were discovered, which corresponds to a decrease of 20% compared to the previous year. These figures, published by State of North Rhine-Westphalia, reflect the general trend that many of the bombs are found before construction work. However, the challenge for the people of Cologne remains that despite the declining numbers, the danger is latent.

The dynamic in combat ammunition disposal remains high, and the people of Cologne must remain vigilant in order to be able to react quickly in an emergency. The coming days will show how the next bomb defusal in Lindenthal goes and what lessons can be learned from previous operations.