Thousands of Parisians evacuated as WW2 bomb detonated

Thousands of people were evacuated from a northern suburb of Paris while a World War Two bomb was rendered safe on Sunday. Residents in Colombes living within a 450m radius of where the device was found last month were told by police to leave their homes by 07:00 local time (05:00 GMT), as authorities carried out a bomb disposal operation. An inita...

Thousands of people were evacuated from a northern suburb of Paris while a World War Two bomb was rendered safe on Sunday.

Residents in Colombes living within a 450m radius of where the device was found last month were told by police to leave their homes by 07:00 local time (05:00 GMT), as authorities carried out a bomb disposal operation.

An inital attempt to remove the device's detonator failed, French media reports, prompting authorities to destroy the historic munition in situ with a controlled explosion.

The operation was "carried out successfully" and the evacutation order was lifted by early on Sunday evening, the Préfet des Hauts-de-Seine confirmed in a statement.