WARTIME BOMBS UNEARTHED

Fire ghters across Germany have faced a busy few months as a number of unexploded WWII bombs have been unearthed in recent months. In October, a 250-kilo US aircra bomb was unearthed during construction work in the city of Dresden, with re ghters evacuating more than 3,000 people to local emergency shelters before bomb disposal teams could enter the site to defuse it. In September, Munich re ghters had to go door to door asking people to leave a 500metre radius around a site when another 250-kilo aircra bomb was discovered in the Ostpreußenstrasse area of the city. In August, another unexploded bomb was found during construction work in the Moabit area of Berlin, with re ghters evacuating residents in a 500metre radius, closing o rail and commuter lines and surrounding roads.

At least 20 people died a er a large re swept through a home for the elderly two days before Christmas in the Siberian city of Kemerovo. A further six people were injured in the re that saw the entire top oor of the two-storey wooden building gutted. Initial reports suggest the re may have been caused by a faulty heating boiler. Dozens of re ghters were deployed to ght the overnight blaze, with the re fully extinguished by Christmas Eve. e private home for the elderly is believed to have been operating illegally, according to local o cials. e governor of the region said all similar facilities would now be inspected, and a criminal inquiry has been launched. Local re service o cials told media that many unregistered care homes for the elderly are operating across Russia, and as such are considered private property, meaning they are using a loophole that allows them to avoid re safety inspections. e Kemerovo region of Siberia has faced other tragedies in the last few years, including a re in a leisure centre in 2018 that saw 60 people killed.