Thousands evacuated in Italy's South Tyrol for WWII-era bomb disposal

Nearly 4,000 people were evacuated and one of Europe'sbusiest motorways was closed for a few hours as a World War II-erabomb was defused Sunday in Italy's South Tyrol province.Bomb disposal experts worked on a 225-kilogram explosive found onOctober 9 in Bolzano/Bozen, South Tyrol's capital, during roadworksin the central Piazza Verdi.Starting from 6.30 am (0430 GMT), people living within a 500-metreradius of the bomb site were evacuated. Local authorities said 3,929people were affected.here were also more than 61,000 people living slightly further awayfrom the Piazza Verdi site who were ordered not to leave their homesduring bomb disposal operations. At around 11.45 am, civil protection authorities said the bomb hadbeen successfully defused and that life could go back to normal.Operations lasted about two hours.Local authorities had ordered the suspension of local bus servicesand of rail traffic passing through the city, as well as the closureof the Brenner motorway leading to the Austrian border. The operator of the motorway - a key road from Italy to northernEurope - said the closure caused traffic jams of 2 kilometres northof Bolzano/Bozen and of 4 kilometres south of it.South Tyrol is a majority German-speaking province, but itsinstitutions have a bilingual Italian-German appellation, includingits capital Bolzano/Bozen.