Boris Roessler/AFP/Getty Images
- An explosion shook the town of Ahlbach, Germany early Sunday morning.
- Experts later determined that it was likely a World War II-era bomb that detonated.
- In a statement about the incident, town officials pointed out that the area, where the Nazis had railway facilities and radio stations, was a popular target for bombing raids during the war.
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An explosion that rocked a German town over the weekend, and created a 13-feet deep crater in a cornfield, was likely a World War II-era bomb going off, experts said.
Residents in the town of Ahlbach were woken around 4 a.m. on Sunday by a loud blast followed by a tremor that felt like an earthquake, according to CNN. No one was injured in the blast, the Associated Press reported.
Investigators who visited the cornfield discovered a crater that was 33 feet wide, according to a press release from officials in the town of Limburg.
Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
While there was speculation that the blast could have been a meteorite, experts were brought in and determined it was "almost certainly" a World War II bomb, hessenschau.de reported.
Limburg officials pointed out in their statement that the area was a frequent target for bombing raids during the war, since the Nazis operated railway facilities and radio stations nearby.
Experts say that undiscovered bombs can explode as their detonators deteriorate over time, according to CNN.
Unexploded bombs continue to be found in Germany more than 70 years after World War II. On Monday, 2,500 people were evacuated just outside Frankfurt when two World War II era bombs were discovered, according to TheLocal.de.
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Source: Business Insider – acollman@businessinsider.com (Ashley Collman)