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WWII bomb unearthed in Budapest defused

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-17 08:30

BUDAPEST-- Hungarian explosives experts defused a 500-kilogram WWII bomb discovered in capital Budapest earlier on Wednesday, according to Hungarian News Agency MTI.

The Tahi Road-Tatai Street residential area was evacuated, several thousand people were moved to nearby sports halls and schools. Streets were closed down for traffic and public transportation was rerouted, while experts inspected the bomb, which was defused at 10:15 p.m. local time. The bomb is an American GP fragmentation device.

Colonel Gabor Hajdu, commander of the unit in charge of the operation, said the bomb contained 300 kilograms of TNT and amatol, and if the device exploded, it "could destroy the whole neighborhood."

Hajdu reiterated that in the past two years, seven similar fragmentation bombs had been unearthed, which were dropped during the siege of Budapest in WWII and lay buried for over 60 years.

Defense Minister Imre Szekeres arrived at the site early in the evening to survey the evacuation of the neighborhood and operations.