Soldiers have defused an unexploded World War II bomb after authorities cleared 15,000 people from their homes in northern Italy.

Authorities in the city of Ravenna say everyone was moved who lived within 800 meters (2,600 feet) of the bomb that resurfaced during construction work more than sixty years after it was dropped by a British plane.

Army engineers defused the bomb Sunday and took it to a nearby military shooting range for detonation.