Tokyo, Oct 20 (IANS): Miyazaki Airport in southwestern Japan resumed operations on Sunday after determining that a magnetic reaction indicating the possible presence of an unexploded World War II bomb around a taxiway was caused by a large amount of iron sand, local media reported.

Japan Airlines cancelled some of its flights Saturday night ahead of work to excavate the taxiway early on Sunday, reports Xinhua, quoting Kyodo News.

The transport ministry's local office said on Saturday it found what appears to be another unexploded World War II bomb after conducting a magnetic survey around the taxiway at the airport where a wartime bomb had exploded earlier this month.

The survey detected a 1.3-metre-wide object 1.6 metres below the ground, the office said.

On October 2, a 250-kilogram bomb dropped by the US military during the war exploded around the taxiway, leaving asphalt fragments scattered over a radius of some 200 metres, including the runway. No one was injured in the explosion.

Formerly an air base of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Miyazaki Airport has seen two unexploded bombs unearthed in recent years, in 2011 and 2021.