Excavation works yesterday in connection with the Qrendi cemetery extension unearthed a German Luftwaffe World War 2 aerial bomb, the Armed Forces of Malta said yesterday.

AFM members of the 3rd Regiment’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) team from its Ammunition and Explosives Company at Fort Mosta went to the site.

The excavation site where the 500-kilogramme aerial bomb was found by the engaged contractor’s workers was cordoned off by the police as a precautionary safety measure. The AFM’s members rendered the bomb safe, prior to its movement by the 3rd Regiment’s Plant Troop for disposal at sea.

The Qrendi-Mqabba area around the airport was one of the most severely bombed zones in Malta during the Second World War, given the strategic importance of Royal Air Force and Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm fighters and bombers based there. The aircraft were not only defending the country, but also embarking on raids in nearby Axis-occupied Sicily and on re-supply convoys to Field Marshall Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps in North Africa.