Frankfurt plans evacuation of city area to defuse WWII bomb

Frankfurt city authorities plan to evacuate more than 60,000 people from their homes on Sunday to defuse a Second World War bomb found during construction work.

The 1.6 tonne bomb of a type dropped by British bombers was unearthed Tuesday. City councillor Markus Frank said Thursday it contains 1.27 tonnes of explosives.

Frank said that a radius of 1.5 kilometres around the bomb will have to be evacuated as a precaution ahead of the disposal itself, which is expected to take about four hours.

Officials are describing the planned evacuation as Germany's biggest yet, though similar operations are still common more than 70 years after the war ended. In May, for example, around 50,000 people had to leave their homes in Hannover temporarily for a bomb disposal.

"We have never defused a bomb of this size," bomb disposal expert Rene Bennert told Reuters, adding that it had been damaged on impact when it was dropped between 1943 and 1945.

The most dangerous part of the exercise will be applying the so-called rocket wrench, Bennert said. The wrench will be used to try and unscrew the fuses attached to the bomb. If that fails, a water jet will be used to cut the fuses away from the bomb, Bennert told Reuters.