Some 16,000 people were evacuated to shelters in Tokyo on Sunday as troops removed an unexploded bomb believed to have been dropped by the US military during World War II, officials said.
Train services were halted and roads sealed off as local authorities put a cordon around a 500 metre ( 1,650 feet) radius of the bomb found in Tokyo's residential area of Chofu, the AFP reported.
The Self-Defence Force's explosive ordnance disposal team began an operation Sunday morning and successfully removed the one-tonne US-made bomb buried some 3.5 metres below the ground, officials said.