Exeter was warned of a ‘big bang’ yesterday after a WW2 bomb was found near the city centre the previous day. Later it was discovered that it was a Nazi blitz bomb which left thousands of students and local residents evacuated from their homes for what they thought was going to be a 48 hour period.
The bomb which was found by builders near the Streatham campus on Friday, has been sitting at 2.55m in length for decades.
The bomb was detonated in a controlled environment yesterday evening at around 6.15pm following the evacuation operation. People in Exeter had their TV’s on mute in the evening waiting to hear the explosion, after which they took to social media to post what they could see and hear.
Adam Short, from Exeter, described the explosion on Twitter and the moment it “rattled his windows”.
Robyn Clifford tweeted “WW2 bomb exploded 400m from my window in Exeter! Managed to get a piece of WW2 bomb memorabilia hit the window too”.
Hetty Williams said “Opened the windows an hour ago to hear the bomb explode. Forgot the bomb was going to explode. The bomb exploded and I jumped out of my skin”.
Videos of the moment the bomb exploded flooded peoples social media. The sky filled with black smoke and left windows blown out in nearby buildings. The people who were evacuated from the area after the bomb was found, are still yet to return back.
Devon and Cornwall police updated those evacuated from their homes this evening on Twitter and said that “critical safety assessment work is ongoing. Every effort is being made to allow residents to return home tonight, but due to the extent of essential work, this is regrettably unlikely”.