Dresden death toll 'lower than thought'

The Allied firebombing of Dresden killed no more than 25,000 people – far fewer than scholars’ previous estimates running as high as 135,000 – a German commission has found.

The team of a dozen experts, including university professors, archivists and military historians, said four years of research so far had confirmed 18,000 deaths and showed that police and city administrators at the time believed there were about 25,000 victims of the bombing. The research is to continue until next year.