A German bomb disposal team has successfully defused an unexploded World War II bomb that had forced the evacuation of 18,500 people in the city of Ludwigshafen.
The 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) aerial bomb, thought to have been dropped by American forces, was discovered during construction work last week.
“Good news: the bomb has been defused! Citizens may return to their homes,” the city of Ludwigshafen says on its official Twitter feed.
It also posted a picture of the freshly unearthed, corroded bomb, strapped to a pallet before being removed from the area.
Authorities in the western city had ordered all those living within a 1,000-metre (0.6-mile) radius of the bomb site to leave their homes from 08:00 am (0600 GMT) as a precaution ahead of the defusing operation.
It took the bomb squad just over an hour to complete the delicate task, and the all-clear was given shortly after 2:00 pm.
More than 70 years after the end of World War II, Germany remains littered with unexploded ordnance, a legacy of the intense Allied bombing campaign against Nazi Germany.
— AFP
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