Thousands evacuated as 1,000-Kg NATO bomb removed from Serbian city

Police, firefighters and medical teams were present to ensure that the bomb was transported safely Image Courtesy AFP

More than a thousand people had to be evacuated after experts defused a device that had been left behind in a city in southern Serbia during NATO bombing of the nation in 1999, according to officials.

An interior ministry official stated that the 1,000-kilogram (2,200-pound) device was successfully removed from a building site in the Nis neighborhood.

“It is being transported to a safe location where it will be destroyed”, official Luka Causic told reporters.

Before the removal of the bomb, 1,300 residents of the area where it was found were evacuated for their safety, he added.

According to Causic, the explosive charge of the MK-84 bomb is 430 kilograms.

NATO bombed Serbia for 78 days starting on March 24, 1999, without the UN Security Council’s authority.

Its goal was to put a stop to the brutal suppression of ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo by Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.

On May 7, 1999, one of the worst episodes of the campaign occurred in Nis. NATO aircraft launched cluster bombs on a packed downtown outdoor market, killing over a dozen people. Later on, the event was called a “blunder”.

On May 12 of that year, cluster bombs were dropped on the city once more, resulting in the deaths of eleven civilians.

Police, firefighters and medical teams were present to ensure that the bomb was transported safely.

(With agency inputs)