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More than 400 WWII shells found in village at center of France’s wildfire crisis
CNN • • general
Key Points:
- Hundreds of unexploded World War II shells and munitions were discovered in the French village of Le Porge following recent wildfires, prompting a bomb disposal operation that recovered over 400 items.
- The wildfires in France’s Gironde region forced most of the village’s 3,500 residents to evacuate, with flames burning more than 160,000 hectares, marking the largest fire record in the country.
- Authorities established exclusion zones due to the danger posed by the unexploded shells, some of which detonated from the heat of the fires, scattering lethal fragments.
- The extreme wildfires and heatwaves across Europe, exacerbated by climate change, have also revealed other historic relics, including World War II bombs exposed by receding river levels in Hungary.
- Officials have allowed residents to return to Le Porge after safety assessments, though fires remain active but contained in nearby areas, while temperatures in parts of Europe continue to soar well above normal.
