FLORENCE, ITALY – Italy was cut in two this morning, December 2, 2015, as an unexploded WWII bomb was removed from a field in Umbria, stopping traffic on Italy’s busy A1 motorway that joins Milan to Bologna, Florence, Rome and Naples .
People were evacuated from their homes in the area, while the motorway and railway lines between the Umbrian towns of Orte and Orvieto were closed as the army worked to defuse and remove the 450kg device on Wednesday morning,
By the time the bomb, found on Monday, was safely removed, there were queues of cars a kilometer long in both directions along the motorway. All train services between Rome and Florence were stopped for two hours.
Unexploded ordnance from at least as far back as the American Civil War still poses a hazard worldwide, both in current and former combat areas and on military firing ranges. A major problem with unexploded ordnance is that over the years the detonator and main charge deteriorate, frequently making them more sensitive to disturbance, and therefore more dangerous to handle.