Some 36,000 people were evacuated Sunday in Battipaglia, Campania, in southern Italy, to allow the artificers to defuse an old air bomb dating from the Second World War, local authorities said.
A "red zone" with a radius of 1.6 km was defined around the bomb weighing more than 110 kg and all people living in this area had to leave their homes. The Battipaglia prefecture has also announced the interruption of train traffic, the railway line being in the red zone. The website of the daily La Repubblica indicated that a nearby motorway would also be closed.
Hundreds of local emergency preparedness volunteers have been deployed to ensure the smooth running of the operations that are expected to conclude in the evening.