AKIPRESS.COM - Around 54,000 people were evacuated from an Italian city as experts worked to defuse a British Second World War bomb, authorities have said, Sky News reports.

The evacuation in the southern Italian city of Brindisi on Sunday saw more than 60% of the city's residents forced to vacate a "red zone" in a radius of 1,617 metres (5,305ft) from where the bomb was found.

Local newspaper Corriere della Sera said the operation was the biggest peacetime evacuation in Italy.

The British bomb, believed to have been dropped on the city in 1941, is one metre long and contains 40kg of dynamite, authorities said.

It was found by chance last month during a refurbishment works at a cinema theatre.

Brindisi's airport, train station, two hospitals and a prison were shut down and evacuated as part of the operation.