FRANKFURT AM MAIN: A German bomb disposal team on Sunday successfully defused an unexploded World War II bomb that had forced the evacuation of 18,500 people in the city of Ludwigshafen.
The 500-kilogramme (1,100-pound) aerial bomb, thought to have been dropped by American forces, was discovered during construction work earlier in the week.
"Good news: the bomb has been defused! Citizens may return to their homes," the city of Ludwigshafen said 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.
In the biggest post-war evacuation to date, some 60,000 Frankfurt residents were evacuated last year so that an unexploded 1.8-tonne British bomb dubbed the "blockbuster" could be defused. In April, thousands had to clear an area around Berlin's central railway station after another British bomb was discovered on a building site.
Mobsters have moved aggressively into the low-risk, low-key world of white-collar crime
Deby has promised to bolster security, strengthen the rule of law and increase electricity production
Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the attack took place near the village of Berezovka
Under Iraqi law, terrorism and murder offences are punishable by death
The Turkish defence ministry said the PKK militants had been “neutralised” in the Hakurk region
According to Italian broadcaster RAI, the workers suffered from toxic gas poisoning