The discovery of the half-tonne device in Cologne's Rhine River during construction led to shipping closures and evacuations.
ADVERTISEMENTAn unexploded 500-kilogram World War II bomb was discovered this week in the Rhine River in the German city of Cologne.
The explosive was uncovered during construction on the shipping channel near the Kennedy embankment in Deutz.
The Düsseldorf district government designated a danger zone with a radius of 500 meters. The Rhine was closed to shipping for the duration of the defusing operation, which was completed on Wednesday afternoon.
Several roads and the Rhine bank tunnel were also closed.
The city of Cologne was bombed more than 200 times during World War II, and many unexploded munitions have been unearthed in the decades since.