The largest ever World War II bomb found in Poland exploded on Tuesday while navy divers were trying to defuse it.

The 5-ton "Tallboy" bomb was discovered resting at the bottom of a Baltic sea shipping canal in Swinoujscie in September 2019 during works to deepen the waterway leading to the port of Szczecin, in northwest Poland. 

The dangerous relic was dropped by Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1945 to sink a German warship, the cruiser Lutzow.

The navy experts were trying to neutralize the device using remote deflagration – a technique that involves burning out the bomb's explosive, but instead the bomb was detonated.

It was 6 meters long and its 5 tons included 2.4 tons of explosives.

Luckily, more than 750 people living in the area surrounding Swinoujscie had been pre-emptively evacuated, and the divers on site didn't report any injuries.