Luftwaffe finally succeed bringing East End to standstill... 66 years after failing in London Blitz

15 May 2007

Barrier greeting families trying to get back home

By Jessica Smith at the scene

FAMILIES were allowed back in their homes in East London last night (Tues) 24 hours after being evacuated after a 500lb unexploded German wartime bomb was unearthed on a building site close by.

Entrance to site where wartime bomb was found

But they will have to be evacuated again on Wednesday when an Army Bomb disposal unit returns to the site at Bethnal Green.

They will either to remove the World War II relic carefully, or just blow it up with a controlled explosion by robot where it landed unnoticed next to the Regent's Canal almost seven decades ago.

Chaos... as a No 8 London bus gets stuck at the police cordon

Police threw up a 200-yard exclusion zone around Suttons Wharf by the side of the canal after a mechanical digger dug it up on Monday night (May 16).

It closed the normally busy Roman Road, one of the East End's busy rush-hour routes, and put hundred of residents out of their homes.

The local authority, Tower Hamlets, set up a rest centre at a school a mile away, reminiscent of the emergency air-raid shelters of the London Blitz nearly 70 years ago.

But none of the evacuated families turned up, all preferring to stay with relatives or friends.

The confusion led to anger when they tried returning next morning back to their homes. The police wouldn't let them through.

Mum-of-two Shelon Musah, who couldn't get back to her home in Palmer's Road, off Roman Road, was in tears as she stood at the police cordon with her 21-month-old baby, tired and exhausted, waiting to be let back.

"I came out to take my daughter to school and there were police and bomb squad officers everywhere," she told the Advertiser.

"Now I'm not allowed back and my son really needs a feed.

"Monday night they told us four or five times to leave and then come back.

"But now they're not telling us what's going on!"

Schoolboy Charlie Brown, 14, and his cousin Jordan Strong, 15, who had to leave their home nearby in Mace Street, were scared the bomb dropped in the London Blitz would suddenly go off, 66 years later.

"The police told us they were waiting for a scientist to come and see what type of bomb it is," Charlie said.

"They said it might blow up. I was really scared."

Jordan also admitted he was "petrified."

Alex Raye, a 24-year-old waiter at Weaver's Fields café nearby, was afraid there could be more unexploded bombs in the area which was badly damaged in air raids during the London Blitz. He thought this one could "go off at any time."

Shops and businesses were forced to close as an eerie silence fell on the normally bustling main road brought to its knees by the German bomb dropped on Suttons Wharf by the Luftwaffe in 1941.

One company badly hit by the cordon was a lettings and property agency which also rents out accommodation to the homeless.

Its boss Daniel McNally arrived to open as usual on Tuesday, but wasn't allowed through.

"We've been trying in vain to get in all day," he fumed.

"People will be phoning us not knowing what's going on.

"It will be very costly in sales. People in the rented flats could be in dire need of electricity or gas."

Many evacuated residents were annoyed police were not giving information on how long it would take to make the bomb safe.

Samantha Shipton, 31, who lives in a flat just yards from the site, said: "A lot of us have small children and want to know what's going on. But the police have hardly told us anything."

Scotland Yard was still advising drivers and pedestrians to avoid Bethnal Green.

At least 250 bombs were dropped on Bethnal Green during German air raids in 1941. There may have been many more, like the 500-pounder at Sutton's Wharf, which only seem to come to light during the East End's ongoing redevelopment.

Tower Hamlets council emergency telephone number for anyone affected is: 020-7364 7000.