8,000 moved to clear Paris bombs
Major exercise on Sunday to remove three unexploded bombs to the east of the capital will see trains diverted
EIGHT thousand people have been ordered out of their homes on Sunday in a major exercise to clear three unexploded British second world war bombs to the east of Paris.
Roads will be closed and trains diverted as mine-clearing experts are called in to secure the area around the suburb of Noisy-le-Sec, in the Seine-Saint-Denis.
TGVs or local trains that normally serve the Gare de l'Est will be diverted to the Gare du Nord on Sunday until 18.00, when the operation will either have been completed or will be postponed for a second attempt on September 20.
An exclusion zone will be set up from early on Sunday morning, with 8,000 people required to spend the day away from their homes.
The N3 main road will be closed in both directions around Bondy. Boat transport will be banned on the Canal de l'Ourcq and the towpaths will be inaccessible to pedestrians and cyclists.
There will also be disruption to RATP local buses, metro line 5 and tram line 1.
British forces bombed several industrial targets in German-occupied Paris during the second world war - mostly factories in the poorer city suburbs that were supplying German forces.
They include a Renault plant in Boulogne-Billancourt, which was targeted in 1942, and a marshalling yard at the Porte de la Chapelle in the 18th arrondissement in April 1944 - an attack which killed hundreds of civilians living in the area.
