Giant WWII Bomb Explodes During Defusing

A plan to safely defuse an enormous World War II bomb found in Poland didn't go according to plan on Tuesday. The six-ton British "Tallboy," found under water last year in a canal in the city of Swinoujscie, instead detonated, reports the BBC. Luckily, nobody was hurt, as authorities were well prepared for the possibility. Before the attempt, CNN described the 16-foot-long Tallboy as the biggest unexploded bomb from World War II ever found in Poland.

"Nobody has ever defused a Tallboy that is so well preserved and underwater," Grzegorz Lewandowski, a spokesperson for the Polish Navy, told the AFP ahead of the process. It appears that still holds true. "The deflagration process turned into detonation," Lewandowski said afterward, per Reuters. "The object can be considered as neutralized." All divers on the project were outside the danger zone when it exploded, he added. Hundreds of nearby residents had been evacuated as a precaution. (More bomb stories.)