December 31, 2007	Monday	Zilhaj 20, 1428

BERLIN: More than 14,000 people, including 98 hospital patients, were evacuated on Sunday from a one km square area in Hanover as munitions experts defused an unexploded World War Two bomb dropped by an American warplane.

The 1,000-pound bomb, seven metres below a supermarket parking lot in southwest Hanover, was discovered in early December by local authorities studying war-time aerial photos.

“The planning for this evacuation was complicated by the hospital and intensive care patients who had to be transported,” said fire brigade spokesman Alfred Falkenberg. “We waited for this week when there were fewer patients.”

Last year, 22,000 people were evacuated in another part of Hanover, 300 km west of Berlin, while three unexploded British World War Two bombs were defused.—Reuters