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Soviet WWII bomb found outside Merkel's Berlin apartment (Roundup)
Apr 25, 2009, 5:36 GMT
Berlin - A lost Soviet bomb from the Second World War was discovered Friday just outside the Berlin apartment of Chancellor Angela Merkel, triggering a city-centre lockdown as bomb-disposal experts defused it.
The 100-kilogram bomb was discovered just 10 centimetres below the sandy surface of a museum forecourt.
Merkel and her husband lives on Berlin's Island of Museums, between two arms of the Spree River. The bomb was found in front of the Neues Museum, one of five museums of art and antiquities that have given the central-city island its name.
While bomb experts worked on the device, a rail line carrying express and suburban trains was closed and streets were blocked, causing major traffic jams, police said.
Sources said that before they began, Merkel arrived in the cordoned-off area in her chauffeured limousine with her police bodyguards and quickly fetched something from the apartment before driving off in her motorcade.
Unexploded bombs from World War II are frequently found in German cities, often during digging for construction projects.
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