MILAN: Italian experts diffused a World War II bomb found during construction. Authorities have evacuated 4,000 people from the center of the northern city of Bolzano.

The news agency ANSA said the bomb was defused during a three-hour operation on Sunday morning. An alarm signaled the all-clear to reopen the city center, as well as a nearby north-south highway and a rail line connecting Italy with Austria and Germany.

The Neue Suedtiroler Tageszeitung identified the ordnance as an aerial bomb.

According to historian Ettore Frangipane, Bolzano, in the northern Alto-Adige region bordering Austria, suffered 13 major World War II bombing raids that damaged 60% of the city and killed 200 people.

Alto Adige was part of a broad swath of northern Italy that remained under Nazi-occupation long after Italy’s 1943 Allied surrender.

(Agencies)