A large blaze in a Berlin forest that was accompanied by several explosions at an ammunition site is now contained, say firefighters. Fire crews …
A large blaze in a Berlin forest that was accompanied by several explosions at an ammunition site is now contained, say firefighters.
Fire crews were scrambled to the blaze in Grunewald Forest in the west of the German capital on Thursday morning.
Yet, while the fire is now largely under control, there are fears of further explosions.
Authorities on Friday are hoping to get a closer look at the ammunition site, with help from armoured vehicles and robots.
The site is far from the nearest homes and no one had to be evacuated. But there is still a one-kilometre exclusion zone around the site and a nearby highway and railway line remained closed on Friday.
It remains unclear what triggered the first explosions at the ammunition site.
The site was created in Cold War-era West Berlin in 1950, and fireworks, World War II ammunition and other explosive ordnance were stored there before the fire started.
Controlled blasts are carried out there twice a year.
The city authorities have made attempts to find a more suitable location to move the dump away from the forest, but have failed to do so in the past.
