HONG KONG, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Police in China said Friday they disabled a World War II-era bomb discovered at a construction site on Hong Kong Island.
The AN-M66 bomb contained 1,000 pounds of explosives, making it the largest unexploded World War II-era device found in Hong Kong, police said.
Yuen Honwing, a senior bomb disposal officer with the Explosive Ordinance Disposal Bureau, said it took two hours, 20 minutes to remove the live explosives from the bomb casing, which was longer than expected.
"We dare not risk moving the bomb. It could cause severe damage within a radius of [33 feet], and buildings might collapse instantly," Yuen said.
The bomb was discovered Thursday, prompting the evacuation of more than 2,000 people near the area, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported. The bomb was found by construction workers digging an underground hotel structure near the Cosmo Hotel.
