Crimean city partially evacuated for removing WW II mine

SIMFEROPOL - More than 5,000 inhabitants of the Crimean city of Feodosia were evacuated from their homes Tuesday morning as a World War II mine was removed from a city beach.

The mine was found Sunday on the seabed by two men who thought it was a large gas tank and dragged it to shore in the hope of selling it for scrap.

“It was only after the would-be metalworkers knocked off the lid and saw the workings of one of the fuses that they realised that they were not dealing with a tank, but with a real bomb,” the Ukrainian emergencies ministry said in a news release.

The ministry, which was coordinating the mine’s removal, said it was laid by Nazi forces during World War II and had an explosive charge equivalent to 1 tonne of TNT.

–RIA Novosti