Police defuse bomb in downtown HK
Hong Kong police gather around a construction site in downtown Wanchai district where a 454-kilogram World War II bomb was found. The bomb was defused successfully yesterday.
Police in Hong Kong yesterday afternoon successfully defused a World War II bomb found in the city’s downtown Wanchai district, after a long-hour operation.
No casualties or property losses were reported.
The 454-kilogram bomb was found 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 the operation ended yesterday afternoon.
At a news conference yesterday, 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 454-kilogram general purpose bomb and fragmentation could extend from 1,000 to 2,000 meters.
Police said the bomb is believed to be a US 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.
