Latest news with #Elbe
CTV News
5 days ago
- General
- CTV News
German city of Dresden cleared for WWII bomb defusal
The old town is illuminated at the river Elbe while the sun sets in Dresden, Germany, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. BERLIN, Germany — Large parts of Dresden's old town were briefly evacuated on Wednesday as experts sought to defuse an unexploded World War II bomb found during clearance work for a collapsed bridge. Some 17,000 people were asked to leave their homes in the eastern German city, authorities said. The affected area included the famous Frauenkirche, a church which was rebuilt brick-for-brick after being destroyed in the war, as well as several hotels. The bomb was found on Tuesday during clearance work at the site of the Carola Bridge, one of Dresden's main crossings over the Elbe river, which partly collapsed in the middle of the night in September 2024. The entire structure is due to be demolished by October. The bomb was successfully defused early in the afternoon and the evacuation order was subsequently lifted by police. Around 80 years after the war, Germany remains littered with unexploded ordnance, often uncovered during construction work. More than 20,000 people were evacuated from central Cologne in June after three unexploded World War II bombs were found, the biggest such operation in the city since the end of the war. The heart of the city was left deserted, with a hospital, two old people's homes, nine schools and a TV studio evacuated. The bomb found in Dresden was British-made and weighed 250 kilograms, according to city authorities.
Daily Mail
17-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Moment yacht goes up in flames after 'loud bang': Couple rushed to hospital
A yacht in Germany was seen erupting in flames this morning before being left a charred heap of metal in the middle of Magdeburg city centre. At around 5am a loud bang awoke local residents who quickly realised a yacht on the Elbe river, between the Queen Edith Bridge and the Customs Bridge, had caught fire. A Danish man and woman were aboard the nine-metre-long yacht at the time of the blaze outbreak. They managed to escape the fire at the last minute, suffering minor injuries. But they were dashed to hospital with suspected hypothermia and smoke inhalation, as per local reports. According to the police's initial findings: 'The yacht had become stuck the previous day due to low water.' During the terrifying incident, 41 emergency personnel responded to the scene as well as a special fireboat. A fire department spokesperson told MDR: 'The fire was already fully engulfed when the emergency services arrived.' After around an hour of emergency works, the fire had been extinguished, but the boat could not be saved. Both the Editha Bridge and the Customs Bridge had to be completely closed. Images from the scene showed thick black smoke drifting over the the Werder, Cracau, and Brückfeld districts. Residents were urged to close windows and doors via a warning app. The cause of the fire remains unclear and police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the blaze. Authorities have not ruled out environmental damage following the fire and according to the fire department, the damage is estimated at around £86,000. It comes after a superyacht was ravaged by fire after a blaze broke out in St Tropez last week. The dramatic fire unfolded on the Sea Lady II, a 41m boat, which can be chartered from £56,000 a week. And in January, a yacht that was being rented by music producer and rap artist Metro Boomin burst into flames in Miami. The 95-foot boat docked in the Miami River outside the strip club Booby Trap on the River, workers at the club told Local 10 News at the time. But after about 15 or 30 minutes, someone said they smelled smoke coming from the massive vessel. Strip club employees helped evacuate the roughly 15 guests that were staying on the boat, including Metro Boomin, real name Leland Tyler Wayne. The yacht was seen burning for hours with extraordinarily high flames. Just before 7am, the vessel sunk into the river.
Times
26-06-2025
- General
- Times
Cold War watchtower for sale. It's a bit of a fixer-upper
By the standards of the auctioneer trade, the listing for the period property in rural Brandenburg is strikingly restrained. Situated in the 'picturesque' district of Cumlosen with 'numerous opportunities for nature lovers', it says, the five-storey building is of solid construction but requires quite considerable repairs and renovation work. All offers in excess of €5,000 are welcome. The sober language has a lot to do with the period in question: during the Cold War, the structure was built as a watchtower to prevent people from fleeing communist East Germany across the River Elbe. The listed building, which will be sold on Friday by the German federal government's auctions agency, consists of a tiled ground-floor hallway with an office annex, and concrete and iron staircases leading up to what used to be the guards' lounges and the observation deck on the top floor. The total indoor space is 180 sq m (1,940 sq ft). Before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the watchtower overlooked the frontier between East and West. Many people on the socialist German Democratic Republic's (GDR) side of the Elbe valley in this region had their homes demolished and were resettled. Stretches of the riverbank were fenced off with barbed wire and there was a 9pm curfew. That did not prevent some East Germans from swimming across the river, or even crossing it on foot when it froze over. After the collapse of the GDR, the watchtower at Cumlosen was transferred to the federal government and abandoned, with much of the guards' electrical equipment left to moulder in the basement. It has been repeatedly vandalised and the paint is peeling from the walls. The building has often been vandalised and paint is peeling from the walls OLIVER GIERENS/DPA/ALAMY LIVE NEWS However, the local district council in Prignitz said it had received a number of expressions of interest from potential buyers. 'It is certainly a subject that interests many people,' Bernd Atzenroth, the council's spokesman, told RBB, the regional public broadcaster. The district tourism association has suggested that the watchtower, which is located on a fairly popular cycle path along the bank of the Elbe, could be converted into a visitor centre.
Times
06-05-2025
- General
- Times
Russia's VE Day claims ring more hollow than ever
O n April 25, 1945, First Lieutenant Albert Kotzebue and three men from the US 69th Infantry Division got into a boat and crossed the Elbe River. Entering the village of Leckwitz, they noticed a horseman dressed in an unfamiliar uniform. Confident that he was not a German, the Americans approached the rider, who confirmed what they already knew: he was a Soviet soldier serving with the First Ukrainian Front. Five days after the historic link-up between American and Soviet forces in east Germany, Hitler shot himself in the bunker of the Reich Chancellery. The war in Europe ended on May 8, 1945. Scenes of jubilation erupted across the globe. The struggle to defeat Nazi Germany had taken five years, eight months and eight days. It
