Police Defuse Wan Chai Bomb After 20 Hours

Police on Friday lunchtime finished defusing a bomb in Wan Chai, almost 20 hours after it was discovered at a construction site.

Police said the one-thousand pound bomb was probably dropped from an American plane during the Second World War, when Hong Kong was under Japanese occupation.

Two similar bombs were unearthed within days of each other in January at the same location as the latest find – an MTR construction site for the future Shatin-Central rail link.

Surrounding roads were cordoned off and workers were evacuated after the bomb's discovery on Thursday afternoon. They were re-opened on Friday afternoon.

An acting bomb disposal officer, Nestor Lai, said the operation to defuse the explosive was quicker this time around, probably due to the experience officers had gained thanks to the previous discoveries.

But Lai said the challenge this time was that much of the bomb was still buried underground.

"The previous two bombs were actually horizontally positioned and this one was vertical instead. Two-thirds of the body was actually buried underground. As a result we had to unearth at least part of the object before we could start our operation," Lai told reporters.

"Because the bomb is not actually stable, we had to do it very carefully," he added.