About 20,000 people were evacuated in the German city of Cologne's after an approximately 70-year-old bomb was found in the city. 

BBC News reported that the bomb was found in the Riehl area which has schools, zoos, as well as a retirement and disability center that houses about 1,100 residents. The one-tonne bomb was located in close proximity to the 315-meter Mülheim Bridge on the Rhine River. The head of the assisted living center, Otto Ludorff, was quoted by BBC saying that the Cologne evacuation efforts caused "physical and emotional" issues to the residents of the center.

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Reports indicate that the bomb, which is an American design, was found on May 22 at about five meters underground. It was scheduled to be deactivated on May 27.

Cologne city spokeswoman Sabine Wotzlaw told The Wall Street Journal that the bomb was defused within 23 minutes.

The evacuation is the biggest of its kind in the city and one of the biggest in the country. The bomb was also one of the heaviest and deadliest to be unearthed in Cologne.

Transportation in and around the river was also halted, as well as flights that traversed the area's airspace. Bomb scares such as this incident are common in Germany as it is the center of World War II.

Earlier in May, another neighborhood in Cologne evacuated about 3,000 residents upon the discovery of two 250-kilogram bombs, according to DW. In 2014, two bombs were found in the area surrounding the Mülheim bridge. One of the most notable discovery was in 2011 in the city of Koblenz where a U.K.-made bomb caused 45,000 residents to be evacuated.

Wotzlaw told WSJ that during the war, the German city of Cologne was subjected to about 262 bomb attacks, making the discovery of unexploded bombs a normal occurrence.

Tagsww2, bomb, Germany, cologne evacuation, unexploded bombs in germany, cologne, sabine wotzlaw, World War II