30,000 evacuated after WWII bomb found in Germany's Pforzheim

Some 30,000 people have been told to evacuate their homes after an unexploded World War II bomb was found in the south-western German city of Pforzheim, police said on Sunday, reported dpa.

The 1.8-ton bomb is set to be defused later today, with firefighters currently checking whether all residents have left the evacuation zone, a police spokesman said.

The HC-4000 bomb was found during construction work in the eastern part of the city, which is located some 40 kilometres north-west of Stuttgart.

The bomb didn't pose an "immediate danger to the public," city officials had said in a statement on Friday.

The city set up an exclusion zone with a 1.5-kilometre radius as firefighters, police and bomb disposal experts prepared to defuse the bomb.

Parts of the city centre are affected by the evacuation order, with some public transport services also disrupted.

The bomb contains approximately 1.35 tons of explosive material, according to officials.

Even more than 80 years after the end of World War II, it remains common for unexploded bombs from the conflict to be discovered in Germany.