Residents were evacuated from approximately 1,200 homes in a densely populated London neighborhood on Tuesday, as bomb disposal experts worked to defuse a 455kg bomb from World War II.
The local council said it had lodged 80 people in hotels overnight and was serving hot food and drinks at a sports center and a local library, as well as providing activities for children.
“There’s been a sense of the Blitz spirit,” said Louise Neilan, a council spokeswoman in Southwark, located on the south bank of the River Thames. “We’ve been trying to reassure people.”
Southwark was an industrial and commercial hub that was badly destroyed during the Blitz, a German aerial campaign on Britain in 1940 and 1941 that killed about 20,000 civilians in London alone, and was intended to cripple the nation into surrender.
Several police vans and ambulances could be seen in the area, and three schools were shut.
Residents at the centers being run by the Red Cross for evacuees said that they were using the opportunity to get to know each other.
“When I first heard about it, I thought it was a joke, but when I saw the police, I realized it was serious,” said Juliana Ayeni, 32, a care worker.
“Before, nobody talks to each other, but after what’s happened, people just realize life’s too short, let’s just mingle,” she said.
Paul Carriere, 76, a retired sports teacher, said: “When you look at the world where we live, there’s a lot worse than this.”
“We’re all chatting and laughing. That’s what we’re doing. That’s what life is all about,” he said.
The huge bomb was found by workers on a building site on Monday and an initial 100m security cordon set up in the area was later widened to 400m as an army bomb disposal team moved in.
The London Fire Brigade said seven unexploded bombs were discovered between 2009 and last year, but rapid large-scale evacuations like the one seen in Southwark on Monday and Tuesday are rare.
Southwark councilor Lucas Green on Monday said that the bomb was buried 2m to 3m underground and still had its tail fin intact.
The official advised residents to open their windows and keep their curtains drawn in case of a blast, to limit the potential danger from broken glass.
However, 41-year-old charity worker Melina Kakoulidis said she was “more excited than anything else.”
“I’m very interested in World War I and World War II. For me, it’s more a learning experience,” Kakoulidis added.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly