Buried World War 2 bomb of US explodes at Japanese airport

A bomb from the United States of the second World War era, which was buried underground exploded at a Japanese airport, which led to the formation of a large crater in a taxiway and also led to the cancellation of over 80 flights, the Japanese authorities said.

Land and transport ministry officials informed that no one was injured in the incident. They further said that there was no plane nearby the site when the bomb exploded at the Miyazaki airport in south-western region of Japan on Wednesday.

During an investigation, the officials said that self-defence forces and police found that the explosion took place by a 500-pound US bomb and added that no further danger was present. The officials were determining what caused the sudden blast in the World War 2 era bomb.

According to news agency Associated Press, the local Japanese TV footage showed that the crater on the taxiway was reportedly about 7 metres in diameter and 1 metre deep.

Due to the sudden explosion, more than 80 flights were canceled at the Miyazaki airport, with hopes to resume the operation by Thursday morning, said Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi.

The Japanese defence ministry officials said that a number of bombs which remained unexploded and dropped by the US military during the second world war were discovered in the region.