World War II bomb defused in downtown Hong Kong

Police of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Sunday afternoon successfully defused a World War II bomb found in Wanchai district, downtown Hong Kong after a long-hour operation.

No casualties or property losses were reported.

The 1,000-pound bomb was discovered by workers at the Sha Tin to Central rail link construction site on Saturday. Hong Kong police began the bomb disposal work on Saturday afternoon after evacuating about 1,500 people, and finished the operation on Sunday afternoon.

At a news conference Sunday, Tony Chow, senior bomb disposal officer with the Explosive Ordinance Disposal Bureau, said the entire bomb disposal team of the Hong Kong police went to the construction site to carry out the operation. It took a while for them to find a suitable point to cut open the device to burn out the explosives.

Chow said the device was a 1,000-pound general purpose bomb and fragmentation could extend from 1,000 to 2,000 meters.

Police said the bomb is believed to be a U.S. AN-M65 device, dropped between 1941 and 1945. It is the second time that Hong Kong has found a World War II bomb in the downtown area.