More than 11,000 residents of the western German city of Osnabrück were evacuated so that a World War II bomb could be safely defused on Tuesday night.
The residents were allowed to return home early on Wednesday.
Thousands had been informed at the last minute that they needed to evacuate. Rail services were halted, and the main station was closed.
The bomb was defused by about 11:30 p.m., after which city authorities announced that residents could return home.
The explosive, over 60 years old, was found at a construction site and urgently needed to be defused, according to a report on Tuesday afternoon. An immediate evacuation was ordered for 6,500 households within a one-kilometre radius of the bomb. However, the evacuation was delayed for several hours by some residents' reluctance to move.
Such operations are common in Germany, where unexploded ordnances are still frequently discovered.
Earlier this month, three Second World War bombs were defused in central Cologne, prompting the evacuation of more than 20,000 people.
