World War II: Frankfurt Evacuates 60,000 People to Disarm World War II Bomb

 A relic of the relentless pummeling that flattened much of Germany more than 70 years ago forced tens of thousands of people to temporarily abandon their homes on Sunday in Frankfurt.

Technicians worked for hours to defuse a 4,000-pound, World War II-era bomb, thought to have been dropped by the British Royal Air Force, after it was discovered on Tuesday at a construction site for faculty buildings on the edge of Goethe University.

More than 60,000 people living within about a mile of the bomb cleared out early Sunday from a well-to-do district that is home to some of Frankfurt’s banking elite, as well as Germany’s central bank, a day after two hospitals and several retirement homes were evacuated.

“For 7 a.m. on a Sunday, the streets were unusually active, but it wasn’t a rush,” said Anthony J. Garcia, a customer experience consultant in one of the city’s major financial services firms, who left his home early on Sunday. “Folks were being attentive to the demands and what they had to do.”

The police combed the streets and used a helicopter with a heat-sensitive camera to ensure that the area was clear, but the presence of several holdouts meant that the process did not begin at noon, as officials had hoped. The authorities said residents would be able to return to their homes by 8 p.m.

The sheer number of people who were evacuated — it is believed to be the largest in postwar Germany — spoke to the high risk involved, but such events have become routine here, so the authorities were prepared to deal with many people having nowhere to go.

The city’s Jahrhunderthalle convention center was opened, and, Mr. Garcia said, people arrived at a slow and steady pace. “There was no worry, no fright, no kind of rush,” he added.