Around 13,000 people have been told to temporarily leave their homes in the western German city of Duesseldorf after a Second World War-era US bomb was found, firefighters said Monday.

The one-ton United States-made bomb was to be defused overnight after it was discovered during work in the area near the city zoo, the fire brigade said.

The ground in German cities remains riddled with unexploded ordnance that is regularly discovered on construction sites, 78 years after the Second World War.

In 2017, the discovery of a 1.4-ton bomb in Frankfurt forced the evacuation of 65,000 people.

In December 2021, a Second World War bomb exploded at a construction site near Munich station, injuring four people and disrupting rail traffic.