BERLIN -- A World War II bomb has been successfully defused in an eastern German city after some 9,700 people were evacuated from the surrounding area and a meeting of a state legislature was interrupted.

The 250-kilo (551-pound) bomb was found during construction work Thursday morning near the main railway station in Potsdam, near Berlin. The site is close to the city's downtown area and the Brandenburg state legislature.

The city government said the bomb was defused early Thursday evening in an operation that lasted 47 minutes and which Mayor Jann Jakobs described as "very challenging."

Allied airplanes dropped millions of tons of ordnance on Germany during World War II, and unexploded bombs are still found frequently.