/ 29 July 2008

Thousands evacuated in Budapest as WWII bomb found

Hungarian police evacuated thousands of people in central Budapest on Tuesday where experts prepared to defuse a huge World War II bomb found on a construction site.

The two-tonne bomb is one of the biggest found in the Hungarian capital, which was heavily bombed by the Allies during World War II. Earlier this month another part of Budapest was evacuated after a half-tonne bomb was discovered.

About 16 000 people live in the area where the latest bomb was found, said Tamas Bansaghi, deputy mayor of the affected ninth district.

”It was found after a mill was demolished in which people had worked for decades without knowing what was down there,” he told Reuters.

He said defusing it might take well into the night because it is embedded in concrete in a deep hole. — Reuters