London - A 500 kg bomb was finally detonated yesterday, 55 years after it was dropped in a Wiltshire field by the German air force. Afterwards, hundreds of residents evacuated for safety reasons returned to their homes.
The bomb sent a fountain of earth hundreds of feet into the air in an explosion which could be heard for miles around. But despite fears that the shockwaves could damage properties and injure local residents in Chippenham, the damage was minimal and the 1,100 people evacuated were allowed to return.
The alarm was raised about the bomb - and a second 250 kg device which was defused - last Thursday. They were discovered in a field in which the local authority planned to build a new school, after a local farmer revealed that he remembered German bombs falling on the field.
