City partly evacuated after wartime bomb discovered

Local authorities have evacuated some 20,000 people in the Normandy city of Caen so technicians can defuse a 1,100-pound bomb dropped by American forces during World War II.

The unexploded bomb was found at the end of January by workers building a language centre at Caen University.

The prefecture, or administrative headquarters, says people in the area were told last week they would be evacuated today so that the delicate job of defusing the huge bomb could be safely carried out.

Allied forces dropped thousands of tons of bombs on Normandy in 1944 after D-Day. Unexploded bombs are occasionally found.

Officials said a British bomb was defused today outside Caen in an uninhabited area – with no evacuation required.