60,000 evacuating Frankfurt before disposal of WWII-era bomb

German police officers are checking houses and apartments during an evacuation of more than 60,000 people in Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 3, 2017. The evacuation became necessary due to an unexploded 1.8 ton WW II bomb that will be diffused later in the day. (Photo by MICHAEL PROBST / AP)

FRANKFURT, Germany — German authorities are making final preparations in Frankfurt before experts defuse a huge World War II-era bomb Sunday in an operation that includes evacuating more than 60,000 residents.

Hospital patients and the elderly are among those affected in what will be Germany’s biggest evacuation in recent history.

Construction workers found the 1.8-ton (4,000-pound) British bomb Tuesday. Officials have ordered residents to evacuate homes within a 1.5-kilometer (nearly a mile) radius of the site in Germany’s financial capital.

Dozens of ambulances lined up before driving to pick up anyone unable to independently leave the danger zone.

Similar operations are still common 72 years after the war ended. About 20,000 people were evacuated from the western city of Koblenz before specialists disarmed a 500-kilogram US bomb Saturday.