RT NewsA 116-metre-high (380 feet) skyscraper in Germany’s Frankfurt am Main was razed to the ground in 10 seconds flat in one of the largest-ever controlled building explosions in Europe.
Thousands of spectators gathered Sunday morning to watch the demolition of the former university tower AfE (or AfE Turm) in the center of Germany’s financial capital.
Some 950 kilograms of explosives were inserted into 1,500 holes drilled in the 32-story, 50,000-ton skyscraper in order to destroy it– making it the tallest-ever building in Europe to be demolished by a blast, Deutsche Welle reported.
In just about 10 seconds after the blast, the tower, built in 1972, vanished in a huge cloud of gray dust.
Barriers up to 6 meters high were erected a distance away from the tower to prevent any damage to nearby buildings. Also, engineers in charge of the operation blew up canisters with water along with the building to reduce the amount of dust produced by the explosion.
A 250-meter exclusion zone was set up around the skyscraper before it was brought down, and some surrounding streets were also closed, AP reported.
No injuries or damage to other buildings were reported.
The AfE Tower used to house the facilities of the department of social sciences and education at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University until last year, when they were moved to a new campus. Initially, it was planned to demolish the skyscraper gradually, but after complaints from locals about lengthy and noisy work, authorities decided to blow it up with explosives.
Two new office towers will be constructed on the site.
The statue ‘Hammering Man’ (L) by U.S. artist Jonathan Borofsky near the Fair Tower is pictured next to the AfE tower in Frankfurt February 2, 2014. (Reuters / Ralph Orlowski)
Onlookers watch the blasting of a 116 meters building in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on February 2, 2014. (AFP Photo / Daniel Reinhardt)
A university tower collapses during the blasting of the 116 meters building in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on February 2, 2014. (AFP Photo / Frank Rumpenhorst)
A giant dust cloud emerges during the blasting of a 116 meters building in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on February 2, 2014. (AFP Photo / Boris Roessler)
A combination of pictures shows the Goethe University AfE tower as it collapses during controlled implosions in Frankfurt, February 2, 2014. (Reuters / Ralph Orlowski)
http://rt.com/news/demolition-explosion-frankfurt-skyscraper-541/
All that work. Could have just flown a plane into it! Just kidding, everyone knows that’s ridiculous:)
Hahahaha! My thoughts exactly.
Well we beat the Germans again. The controlled demolition of the twin towers was a much nicer job, and WTC7 came down perfectly, like it was descending on an elevator.
On a side note JR, the town I work in over there has run their rats out of their fair city 3 times throughout history! I think they knew a problem when they saw one but it’s probably never going to happen again
Hi Jolly Roger,
Hahahaha,.. YOU BEAT ME TO IT!!
If anyone wants to see the largest “Controlled Demolition” in North America,.. please view any/all videos of World Trade Center 1, and World Trade Center 2 (The “Twin Towers”),.. be demolisted on 9/11/01.
And don’t forget the next biggest CONTROLLED DEMOLITION in NYC history,.. World Trade Center 7 (Bldg – 7),.. which occured later that same afternoon.
We have to hand it to Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft and all the other Criminals/Traitors of the US Fed Gov’t,… they actually hired a competent company to carry out those acts of controlled treason!!
JD – US Marines – Even when this, “Enemy-Force-In-Occupation” does a treasonous demolition job,.. nobody does it on an American scale!
yes..you nailed it good..im from nyc..was down there that days of end daze..yes when it comes too blowing up things and bombing the crap out of other countries….the united snakes gets the gold medal..
Now, now JD, you are not being a good communist!
Building 7 was due to fires, you know that because Jane (what’s her name), told us some 46 minutes before it fell into it’s own footprint that it “collapsed”, while still standing in the background of her broadcast. The MSM would never lie to us.
We had the most competent security team on duty that day, and they have our best interests at heart, and they are all about the “security” of this country.
Snap out of it and be a good commie! 😐
OMG! The terrorists have just brought down another building in Germany!
Whoops! My bad. It was just a controlled demolition.
Merkel could have used this as an excuse to rack up some Stasi forces for the NWO. (Never let a good crisis go to waste) That is, if the Germans are stupid enough to fall for it again.
Sloppy.
Should have hired Mossad.