The second device was found just 10 metres from where the first was discovered, police said. The two bombs were both American-made AN-M65 bombs, likely to have been dropped from US planes during the second world war, while the city was under Japanese occupation. Road closures were expected to last until Thursday morning

AN-M65
General purpose bomb

But January 30 and 31 finds were not the biggest wartime bombs dug up in Hong Kong. In February 2014, a 907kg (2,000lbs) bomb was discovered on a construction site in Happy Valley. The bomb, an AN-M66, was the biggest of its kind dropped on Hong Kong by US bombers. When it was found, more than 2,000 people were evacuated from nearby buildings

B29 Superfortress
Strategic bomber

Most wartime bombs found over the past decade were in the northern districts of Hong Kong Island, from Central to Wan Chai

According to Kwong Chi-man, an assistant professor at Hong Kong Baptist University specialising in modern military history, that is because the British Royal Navy base was located at what is now Tamar, in Admiralty, from 1897 to 1997. The Japanese took over the base after they invaded and occupied the city in 1941. As Hong Kong became a logistics centre for the Japanese military in the South China Sea during the occupation, the US Air Force focused on attacking the city and the areas near the naval base