Hours of travel delays end as authorities defuse unexploded WWII bomb near Paris' Gare du Nord

The disposal of what Parisian police called an “excessively dangerous” unexploded World War II bomb, caused hours of transportation chaos on Friday on rail and road networks in the French capital.

The disruptions affected both domestic and international trains, with Eurostar high-speed services operating out of Paris’ busy Gare du Nord station to Brussels and London being suspended.

The bomb was dug up overnight, workers labouring on a bridge replacement project spotted the rust-eaten, dirt-covered bomb just before dawn. It was found by an earth-moving machine, which dug it out from a depth of about two metres, between train tracks to the north of Gare du Nord.

French national railway operator – SNCF – notified emergency police units of their discovery, and reported the suspicious object as a potential bomb. Upon closer examination, authorities did confirm that it was in fact a WWII era bomb.

“They just discovered a bomb, an object that seemed a bit strange to them on their site,” said Christophe Pezron, who heads the Paris Police Laboratory – including bomb disposal services.

“A team was sent out immediately, and we identified it as a 500-kilogram English bomb, an extremely dangerous object.”

Authorities say the bomb could have caused major damage had it exploded after workers inadvertently dug it up. They also noted that the task was delicate and required serious expertise to handle with care and urgency.

“It's always risky. It's always dangerous to handle something that fell 4-thousand meters from a plane, that contains almost 300 kilos of explosives, and that didn't work,” added Pezron.

“We don't know why it didn't work. So, yes, it's dangerous, but it's really the de-miners' expertise that makes it possible to tackle and