5,000 evacuated to defuse WW II bomb

Experts carried out a controlled explosion on Wednesday on a World War II bomb whose discovery forced the evacuation of some 5,000 residents, police said.

The British bomb was found during construction work Tuesday afternoon in the garden of a house in the capital's western Wilmersdorf district.

Police said in a statement that experts blew up the bomb early Wednesday after closing part of a nearby highway as a precaution. Around 600 of the evacuated residents were put up in schools and other public buildings, while others stayed with friends. Unexploded bombs from World War II are still found frequently in Germany more than 60 years after the conflict's end.