Berlin evacuates city center for WWII bomb disposal

By Erbil Basay

BERLIN (AA) - Police in Berlin evacuated nearly 10,000 people after an unexploded World War II bomb was found Friday at a construction site near the capital's main train station.

Residents and workers were asked to leave a two-square-kilometer area to allow experts to defuse the 500-kilogram (1,100lb) British bomb discovered in the construction site in Heidestrasse.

The streets in the area were closed to traffic and the train station was shuttered at 11.30 a.m. (0930GMT) local time until 02.00 p.m. local time (1200GMT).

It is estimated that there are at least 3,000 unexploded ordnance underground across Germany from the 1939-45 war.

Unexploded bombs were found in early April in the city of Paderborn and in Hannover last year which also led to evacuations.