Hong Kong, Jan 28 (IANS): The Hong Kong Police on Sunday successfully defused a World War II bomb after an hour-long operation. No casualties or loss of property was reported.

The 1,000-pound bomb was discovered by workers at a construction site in Wanchai district in downtown Hong Kong on Saturday. It is the second time that Hong Kong has found a WWII bomb in the downtown area, Xinhua news agency reported.

The police began the bomb disposal work on Saturday after evacuating about 1,500 people, and finished the operation on Sunday afternoon.

At a news conference on Sunday, Tony Chow, senior bomb disposal officer with the Explosive Ordinance Disposal Bureau, said the entire bomb disposal team of the Hong Kong Police went to the construction site to carry out the operation.

It took a while for them to find a suitable point to cut open the device to burn out the explosives.

Chow said the device was a general purpose bomb and fragmentation could extend from 1,000 to 2,000 meters.

Police said the bomb is believed to be a US AN-M65 device, dropped between 1941 and 1945.