Military experts defused and detonated a controlled explosion on Sunday of the 450-kilogram (1,000-pound) bomb, which was discovered on July 25 near the northern village of Borgo Virgilio, near the northern city of Mantova. “The bomb was found by fishermen on the bank of the Po river due to the decrease in water level caused by the drought,” said Colonel Marco Nassi. The Italian Army detonates a World War II bomb discovered in the parched Po River in the north of the country. Photo: Italian Army/Reuters It was not easy to clear the bomb. About 3,000 people living nearby were evacuated for the neutralization operation, the military said. The airspace in the area was closed and navigation along this section of the waterway, as well as traffic on a railway line and a nearby state road, was disrupted. “At first, some of the residents said they wouldn’t move, but in the last few days, we think we’ve convinced everyone,” Borgo Virgilio mayor Francesco Aporti said, adding that if people had refused to go, businesses would have done stopped Bomb disposal engineers removed the fuse from the US-made device, which the military said contained 240 kilograms (530 lb) of explosives. The bomb squad, accompanied by police, then took the device to a quarry in the municipality of Medole about 45 km (30 mi) away, where it was destroyed. Italy declared a state of emergency last month for the areas around the Po, Italy’s largest river. The river accounts for about a third of Italy’s agricultural production and is experiencing its worst drought in 70 years.
