Thousands of residents were evacuated from their homes after a WWII bomb was discovered in Hong Kong.
The 1,000lb 1.5 metre explosive was discovered ‘intact’ by construction workers in Quarry Bay, a business district on the west side of Hong Kong Island.
Police official Andy Chan Tin-Chu told reporters: ‘We have confirmed this object to be a bomb dating back to World War II.’
Approximately 6,000 people from 1,900 homes were asked to evacuate swiftly due to the ‘exceptionally high risks’ from the disposal.
An operation to deactivate the bomb started on Friday as was completed 11.30am today.
Hong Kong was occupied by Japanese forces during the Sino-Japanese war which became part of WWII.
Allied forces including the US targeted the strategic port with the aim of cutting off Japanese supply lines and disrupt key infrastructure.
Suryanto Chin-chiu, a senior bomb disposal officer, said that the team diffused the explosive by cutting a 30cm hole in the weapon, before incinerating its contents.
He said: ‘Its power is practically intact from when it was dropped in 1945.
‘It was meticulously made from arsenals with the sole purpose of causing mass destruction. It would have been manufactured to constantly remain in a functional state.’
Historian Professor Kwong Chi-man said the disposed bomb was likely one of around six explosives dropped by the US Air Force on the Taikoo Dockyard in April 1945.
With a ‘dud’ rate of up to 20 per cent, there may be more unexploded intact bombs around the city, he told South China Morning Post.
Some 300 hotel guests and worshippers were forced to evacuate buildings in the Happy Valley residential area in February 2020, after a 454kg US military bomb was found on a building site.
In 2017, another US WWII bomb saw 1,300 told to leave their homes in the Wan Chai residential district.
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