Water In Po River, Italy Shrinks Due To Extreme Heat And Fishermen Even Find 450 Kg Active Bombs

Ilustrasi Sungai Po (Photo by Alberto Cognetti on Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The heat wave that hit Europe, especially Italy, not only made the water in the Po River recede drastically. The low water even revealed a surprising finding, an active bomb weighing 450 Kg.

This jumbo bomb is a remnant of World War II. It is suspected that this bomb had previously been sinking for a long time.

Military experts defused and detonated the bomb, Sunday, August 7.

The exact location of the discovery was on July 25 near the northern village of Borgo Virgilio, close to the town of Mantua in the north of the country.

"The bomb was found by fishermen on the banks of the Po river due to a decrease in water levels due to drought," Colonel Marco Nasi was quoted as saying by The Guardian, Monday, August 8.

It is not an easy task to clean the bomb.

Around 3.000 people living in the vicinity of the discovery site were forced to evacuate for disposal operations. Even the area's airspace was shut down, and navigation along the waterway, as well as traffic on nearby state railways and roads, was halted.

“Initially, some residents would not move. But in the last few days, we think we have persuaded everyone," said the mayor of Borgo Virgilio, Francesco Aporti.

The bomb disposal squad, escorted by police, transferred the device to a mine in the municipality of Medole about 45 km (30 miles) away, where it was destroyed.

Italy declared a state of emergency last month for the area around the Po, which is Italy's longest river. The river accounts for about a third of Italy's agricultural production and is experiencing its worst drought in 70 years.