WWII bomb defused at Volkswagen site in German city

BERLIN – A World War II bomb found on the premises of automaker Volkswagen in the German city of Wolfsburg has been defused after some 4,000 people were evacuated from the surrounding area.

City authorities said on Twitter that the bomb was defused Sunday lunchtime. People within a 1-kilometre (0.6-mile) radius, an area that includes part of central Wolfsburg, had been evacuated as a precaution.

The operation forced the temporary closure of a major railway line and a canal that run past the sprawling Volkswagen site, where the company has its headquarters.

More than 70 years after the end of the war, unexploded bombs are still unearthed regularly during construction work in Germany. Defusing them sometimes requires temporary evacuations.