Over two thousand people have been evacuated from hotels, offices, and flats after a 900 kg (2,000 lb) bomb was unearthed by construction workers in downtown Hong Kong.
As of Friday morning, police bomb disposal teams are still working to dismantle the device – an AN-M66, which contained 450 kg (992 lb) of explosives. The bomb was discovered Thursday afternoon at a building site in Hau Tak Lane, near the Happy Valley racecourse.
The AN-M66 is an American-made device, and the largest of its kind dropped on Hong Kong by US bombers during the Japanese occupation of the city in the second world war.
"Because the bomb is not a small one, we think [deactivation] may not be completed very soon," a police spokesperson said on Thursday, adding that the device was too large to risk moving.
All buildings within a 200 metre (656 feet) radius have been evacuated, including two major hotels and the Xinhua News Agency Building.
"It could cause severe damage within a radius of 10 metres, and buildings might collapse instantly. We also did not want to carry out a controlled explosion for safety reasons," senior bomb disposal officer Jimmy Yuen Hon-Wing told the SCMP.
Jackie Akhavan, professor of explosive chemistry at Cranfield University in Britain, said: "It would cause a huge amount of drama. It will cause fragments and a very large blast wave."
Update: Hotels and other buildings, as well as the Aberdeen Tunnel, have reopened after police successfully dismantled the bomb on Friday morning.
[Images via SCMP]
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