Singapore: Second World War bomb destroyed, thousands of residents evacuated

Thousands of Singapore residents were forced to leave their homes on Tuesday as bomb disposal experts detonated a bomb dating from the Second World War, during which the former British colony was bombed by Japanese aircraft.

The 100-kilogram device was discovered last week during construction work in the northeast of the city-state, police said.

Bomb squads detonated the device on site, as the bomb was too dangerous to be transported. A security perimeter had been set up and more than 4,000 residents of this densely populated area had to temporarily leave their homes.

Then a British colony, Singapore was bombed on December 8, 1941 by Japanese planes, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor aimed at destroying the American fleet in the Pacific.

The bombing intensified from January 1942.

In early February, Japanese troops invaded the territory after a week of fighting against British soldiers.

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