The massive action to defuse a 2,000 kg aerial bomb found in recent weeks in the city of Viterbo during construction work on a real estate complex ended yesterday.
The bomb squad of the 6th Pioneer Engineer Regiment of the Army defused an aircraft bomb weighing approximately 2,000 kg, dating back to the Second World War, found in the center of the Municipality of Viterbo.
The operations, coordinated by the Prefecture of Viterbo, began at six o’clock with the clearing of an area of 1,400 meters in radius from the point of discovery of the residue and the consequent evacuation of approximately 36,000 citizens. For the safety of the area, a ban on overflight of the affected airspace has been established, as well as the closure of rail traffic on the Rome-Viterbo regional railway line.
The operators of the EOD team of the 6th Pioneer Engineer Regiment, once the evacuation phase was completed, began the defusing operation at 10.25 am to remove the three fuses, the bomb activation devices, all activated and armed.
Once these devices were neutralized, the war remnant was transported to the 80th “Roma” Regiment in Monte Romano, where it was rendered harmless with the leaching technique, which involves emptying the device using jets of high-temperature water, capable of dissolving the explosive and conveying it to a filtering system, in order to separate the compound, for the subsequent destruction of the explosive.
In 2023, the bomb squad of the Engineering Regiments conducted 2,356 interventions across the entire national territory, neutralizing 12,666 war remnants, including 21 aircraft bombs dating back to world conflicts.
The bomb, with a diameter of 76 cm, 2.08 m long and 0.77 cm thick, contains over 1,300 kg of explosives inside. The 2,000 kg bomb is of the largest type and is the sixth unexploded bomb found in Italy; called the “Blockbuster bomb” it was used by Royal Air Force bombers to destroy entire buildings and blocks together with incendiary devices.
Already in 2007 a similar device had been found unexploded in the Viterbo area resulting in the intervention of the bomb squad.
To limit the evacuation area and the resulting inconvenience to the local population, the military created a containment structure capable of mitigating the possible effects due to a possible accidental explosion during the delicate defusing activities. This allowed the clearing radius to be reduced to just 1,400 m. The distances are the result of recent studies and experiments carried out by the Counter-Improvised Explosive Devices Center of Excellence in Rome.
Source and photo @General Office of the Chief of Staff of the Army/Public Information and Communication Office
