Critically ill coronavirus sufferers flown from Italy to Germany for treatment in local hospitals had to be evacuated again after a 500-lb World War II bomb was unearthed by builders.

A total of 200 patients had to be moved after building work being carried out on the outskirts of the University Hospital Bonn unearthed a massive World War II (WWII) flying bomb.

Bomb disposal experts said there was a significant risk that when tackling the bomb it could explode, and as a result 1,200 nearby residents needed to be evacuated as well as 200 patients who had to leave their beds. A further 650 local residents were told they did not need to be evacuated but had to stay in there apartments.

The police confirmed that those moved in hospital included 11 infected with the coronavirus of which five were in intensive care in a critical condition.

They also confirmed that one man and one woman in the intensive care ward had only recently been flown in from Bergamo in Italy for treatment in the German hospital.

Germany recently flew in patients from Italy where hospitals are struggling to cope. The offer was made because Germany still has spaces available in its hospitals to treat people suffering from the virus.

Prof. Wolfgang Holzgreve, who is the medical director of the clinic in Bonn, said: “The five patients in the intensive station have at the moment inflamed lungs. They are in a critical condition. They need constant help with breathing. We are trying to compensate for the fact that their lungs are simply not working.”

He said this meant that the moving of the patients was not simply a case of shifting the patients to other rooms but also keeping them alive as they were being moved.

The professor added: “This was an additional strain on staff there already overworked massively.”

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