Massive WWII bomb forces overnight evacuation of 6,000 residents from homes

By Brie Stimson

Thousands of people were forced to evacuate a bustling neighborhood of Hong Kong overnight while experts sweated through the delicate work of defusing an undetonated nearly 5-foot, 1,000-pound bomb left over from World War II.

The U.S.-made bomb was found at a construction site in Quarry Bay on Hong Kong’s west side overnight Friday, and it isn’t the first bomb from the war to be found on the island.

"We have confirmed this object to be a bomb dating back to World War II," Andy Chan Tin-Chu, a police official, told reporters. He said because of "the exceptionally high risks associated with its disposal," approximately 1,900 households involving 6,000 individuals were "urged to evacuate swiftly."

bomb that was found at construction site

The shell of a bomb after a disposal operation on Saturday in Hong Kong. (Chen Ziyan/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)

Hong Kong Police said in a statement that the 1,000-pound bomb had 500 pounds of TNT that was likely dropped by U.S. service members during the war, and bomb experts had to work from around 2 a.m. Saturday until nearly noon.

Police said the disposal ordinance team "brav[ed] the elements under the typhoon" to dismantle the bomb," neutralizing the threat by 11:48 a.m.

No one was injured.

In this photo taken in the early hours of Saturday and released by Hong Kong Police, police officers prepare to defuse a large U.S.-made bomb left over from World War II that was discovered at a construction site in Hong Kong. (Hong Kong Police via AP)

"Given the high risks involved in the handling of the bomb that officers from our #ExplosiveOrdnanceDisposal (#EOD) Bureau believe to still be in good condition—#HKPF devised the emergency evacuation plan upon the discovery of the bomb by workers in a construction site at No. 16-94 of fPan Hoi Street—for the sake of ensuring #PublicSafety," the Hong Kong Police Force said in an alert on X.

In 2018, experts defused another WWII bomb found at a construction site in Hong Kong’s business district. It also weighed 1,000 pounds and was the third bomb dug up since January of that year.

Hong Kong was occupied by Japanese forces during the war and was targeted by the U.S. in air raids there.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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