THOUSANDS have been forced to evacuate an Italian seaside town after a humongous British Second World War bomb was accidentally dug up.

The 227kg bomb, measuring 1.1m, was transported to sea as bomb disposal experts warned it could still detonate.

Some 23,000 people in Fano - all of those within a 1.8km radius of the bomb - were evacuated on Tuesday night as a precaution while the explosive was moved.

Nearby hospital patients were transferred, schools were shut and trains services were cancelled until emergency services placed the unexploded bomb into the sea.

The bomb was discovered during excavation work.

Italian army bomb disposal experts said that it will be detonated at sea after a 144-hour wait.

That is the maximum time required to see if the device explodes on its own if its time-delayed trigger was accidentally activated during the excavation.

The Italian navy safely transported the bomb out to an area in the Adriatic Sea outside navigation routes.

Fano’s port was also forced to close as experts worked overnight to remove the explosive by the early hours of Wednesday.