WWI Munitions Danger Spurs France to Evacuate Thousands

As many as 15,000 people were being evacuated from their homes in northern France on Friday because of fears that a stockpile of World War I munitions could explode or leak toxic chemicals, including mustard gas.

Police and more than 700 firefighters went knocking on doors within a two-mile radius of the open-air munitions dump in Vimy, a town of 4,500 people about 90 miles north of Paris and the site of a ferocious Canadian assault on German trenches at Easter 1917.

Calling the situation “a very serious matter,” Interior Minister Daniel Vaillant said, “We cannot exclude further evacuations if the risk level calls for it.”

Local officials planned to evacuate between 10,000 and 15,000 people within 24 hours and told residents that they would not be able to return for about 10 days while the munitions are made safe and moved to another site.

About 173 tons of bombs, shells and mines are stacked at the Vimy depot. The Interior Ministry said a recent survey of the compound showed that the munitions were in a dangerous state, with some of the crates of shells splitting apart.

Officials said the stockpile contains shells of mustard gas, the most lethal of all poisonous chemicals used in the 1914-18 war. It causes internal bleeding and blindness and slowly destroys victims’ lungs.