Berlin bomb find forces 5,000 to flee homes

About 5,000 people were evacuated from their homes near Berlin as explosives experts defused a US 1,000-pound bomb dropped during the Second World War.

Experts took about three hours to defuse the bomb, which was discovered in a construction site in Oranienburg, north of the capital.

Officials say more than 250 unexploded wartime bombs have been found in the town.

Oranienburg was targeted because of its Heinkel warplane factory and a plant where the Nazis experimented with uranium.

PA