An unexploded World War II American bomb buried at an airport in southwestern Japan exploded and created a large crater on the runway, canceling more than 80 flights.
There were no injuries and there were no aircraft in the vicinity when the bomb exploded yesterday at Miyazaki Airport, Ministry of Transport officials said.
The airport authority said the damage to the runway was repaired overnight and flights resumed this morning.
The investigation confirmed that the explosion was caused by an American bomb weighing about 220 kilograms and that there is no longer any danger. It is being determined what caused the sudden detonation.
Video footage from Japanese television shows that a crater about seven meters wide and one meter deep was created on the runway.
Miyazaki Airport was built in 1943 and was used for flight training by the Imperial Japanese Navy. From there, some pilots took off in suicidal actions.
Several unexploded bombs dropped by the U.S. military during World War II have been found in the area, Defense Department officials said.
Hundreds of tons of unexploded bombs from the war remain buried across Japan and are sometimes unearthed at construction sites, AP reports.
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