Beachgoers in Belgium apparently need to watch where they step this summer.
An unexploded bomb was discovered on a beach in Koksijde near the Belgium-France border on May 10. It is believed to be a British aerial bomb from World War II which typically carried around 66 pounds of explosives, according to local news outlet VRT.
Local authorities immediately closed the beach and summoned the bomb squad to examine the device, which was about 2 feet long and 10 inches in diameter.
They set off the bomb in a controlled explosion during low tide that same day.
The discovery of this gigantic bomb lying in wait under the sand was made possible through a local initiative to find and neutralize unexploded bombs in the area, according to the city’s mayor, Marc Vanden Bussche.
Approximately 250 bombs have been found and defused in this way, according to VRT.
In the early days of WWII, Belgium surrendered to Nazi Germany on May 28, 1940, after a bloody 18-day fight that led to more than 12,000 Belgians being killed. Over half of the deaths were civilians.
While occupied by Nazi Germany, Belgians lived amid a constant threat of Allied — U.S. and British — air raids, which targeted factories as well as communication and transport hubs.
From 1944, these aerial bombardments became even more frequent as the Allied forces prepared to liberate the continent, starting with the beaches of Normandy, France.
Located about an hour south of where the undetonated bomb was recently found in Koksijde, the city of Kortrijk was bombed three times by the Allies. In a single day, over 5,000 bombs were dropped in the city center.
Of course, Belgium is not the only country still dealing with unexploded bombs from WWII.
It is estimated that the Allies dropped 2.7 million tons of bombs on Europe in air raids conducted between 1940 and 1945, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Half of these targeted Germany, where it is believed thousands of unexploded bombs are still lurking out of sight.
Each year approximately 2,000 tons of unexploded munitions — including mines, hand grenades, and mortar shells — are uncovered in Germany, usually by construction crews.
Considering their age, these munitions are often volatile. Since 2000, 11 German bomb technicians have been killed while trying to defuse WWII explosives.
In 2010, three bomb technicians died at once when a 1,000-pound bomb found in a flea market in Göttingen went off.
