AUGSBURG, Germany, Dec. 25 — Authorities took four hours to successfully defuse a 2-ton bomb from World War II after more than 54,000 people from Augsburg were evacuated on Christmas day.

Hundreds of police and firefighters were involved in the nation’s biggest evacuation since the Second World War, according to German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. Bomb specialists from the Bavarian city of Würzburg began defusing the bomb several hours after Augsburg’s 10:00 a. m. evacuation deadline.

At 7 p.m., police said via Twitter in Germany: “Good news at Christmas! The aerial bomb in Augsburg was successfully defused.”

Large portions of Augsburg, in Bavaria in the south of Germany near Munich, were destroyed on Feb. 24 and 26, 1944 by hundreds of British and U.S. bombers.

The bomb, which weighed nearly 4,000 pounds, was uncovered during construction work last week.

Everyone within a 0.9-mile radius of the bomb have been evacuated, according to the BBC. Several schools and sports halls were used as shelters.

“The atmosphere in the city is spooky. No man on the streets, no face behind the windowpanes,” a city spokesperson wrote on a dedicated website.

City officials were aware people were inconvenienced during the holiday, but they cited the urgency in making the bomb safe and that the evacuation would be much more difficult on a work day.

Unexploded bombs commonly have been found in many cities around Germany but people have been killed by these type of bombs.

In recent years, several WWII bomb incidents have occurred in Germany.

In January 2012, a construction worker died when his digger hit a bomb in Euskirchen. And, in June 2010, three members of a bomb disposal squad died while attempting to defuse one in Goettingen.

In May 2015, 20,000 people in Cologne were forced to leave their homes after a 1-ton bomb was discovered. And in December 2011, 45,000 people were evacuated from Koblenz after two bombs were found in the Rhine’s riverbed. (UPI)