Hanover quarter evacuated to remove 3 WW2 bombs

BERLIN, Oct 15 (Reuters) More than 22,000 people were evacuated from a district in the German city of Hanover for seven hours today as munitions experts defused three large unexploded World War Two bombs dropped by British warplanes.

''This was the largest post-war evacuation in Hanover,'' said Alfred Falkenberg, a spokesman for the fire brigade, noting the previous record was 18,000. ''I hope the evacuations will end one day, but there are probably several hundred bombs still buried.'' The two live 1,000-pound bombs and one 500-pound bomb were found buried between three and six metres below the surface in a north Hanover quarter after local authorities studied aerial photos made available by Britain and the United States.

One of the larger bombs -- believed to have been dropped in a British attack in October 1943 -- was buried in a garden just a few metres from a house while the other two were detected and then removed from under open fields.

Hanover, with a population of 520,000 people, is a northern industrial centre and transport hub that was heavily bombed during the war. Falkenberg said more than 10,000 bombs were dropped Hanover in the war and 15 per cent failed to explode.

''We'll find them all sooner or later,'' he said.

REUTERS LL RN2100