Frankfurt starts evacuation before attempt to defuse WWII bomb

FRANKFURT, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Frankfurt emergency service staff started to evacuate patients from two hospitals in Germany's financial capital on Saturday ahead of the planned defusing of a massive World War Two bomb. It was discovered on a building site in Frankfurt's leafy Westend, where many wealthy bankers live.

Some 60,000 people have to leave their homes early on Sunday in Germany's biggest evacuation since the war while officials disarm the 1.4 tonne British bomb. More than 100 hospital patients were evacuated on Saturday.

More than 2,000 tonnes of live bombs and munitions are found each year in Germany. In July, a kindergarten was evacuated after teachers discovered an unexploded World War Two bomb on a shelf among some toys. Frankfurt fire and police chiefs said they would use force and incarceration if necessary to clear the area of residents, warning that an uncontrolled explosion of the bomb would be big enough to flatten a city block. The HC 4000 bomb is assumed to have been dropped by Britain's Royal Air Force during the 1939-45 war. The country was pummelled by 1.5 million tonnes of bombs from British and American warplanes that killed 600,000. German officials estimate 15 percent of the bombs failed to explode, some burrowing six metres deep.

The compulsory evacuation radius of 1.5 km around the bomb includes police headquarters, two hospitals, transport systems and Germany's central bank storing $70 billion in gold reserves. Frankfurt's residents have to clear the area by 8 a.m. Sunday. Police will ring every doorbell and use helicopters with heat- sensing cameras to make sure nobody is left behind before they start diffusing the bomb.