Bomb dropped in World War II by US explodes at Japanese airport causing serious runway damage and cancellation of 80 flights

An unexploded US bomb dating from World War II that had been buried at a Japanese airport has exploded.

The ordeal caused a large crater in a taxiway, and the cancellation of more than 80 flights on Wednesday (October 2).

No one was injured in the incident at Miyazaki Airport in south-western Japan, officials said.

Land and transport ministry officials said there were no aircrafts nearby when the bomb exploded.

Officials said an investigation by the Self-Defence Forces and police confirmed that the explosion was caused by a 500lb US bomb, and there was no further danger. They were determining what caused its sudden detonation.

A video recorded by a nearby aviation school showed the blast spewing pieces of tarmac into the air like a fountain.

Videos broadcast on Japanese television showed a crater in the taxiway reportedly about 21ft in diameter and 3ft deep.

Chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said more than 80 flights had been cancelled at the airport, which hopes to resume operations on Thursday morning (October 3).

The explosion left a large crater in the taxiway (CBS News)

Miyazaki Airport was built in 1943 as a former Imperial Japanese Navy flight training field from which some kamikaze pilots took off on suicide attack missions.

A number of unexploded bombs dropped by the US military during the Second World War have been unearthed in the area, defence ministry officials said.

Hundreds of tonnes of unexploded bombs from the war remain buried around Japan and are sometimes dug up at construction sites.

It's thought that a total of 2,348 bombs weighing 41 tonnes were disposed of during 2023, BBC News reports.

Several Japan Airlines flights were affected (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)

While yesterday's event was an unplanned detonation, back in 2020, World War Two ordnance located the Piast Canal was detonated by bomb disposal experts.

The moment the explosion took place was caught on camera.

It's said the bomb, known as the 'Tallboy', contained around 2,400kg worth of explosives.

Ahead of the planned detonation, 750 residents had to be evacuated from the area near the Piast Canal, outside the town of Swinoujscie.

Authorities imposed a 2.4 kilometre exclusion zone around the bomb, meaning no one was hurt as a result of the explosion.

They had to opt to detonate the device instead of moving it because 'chemical processes that have been taking place in the bomb over time means that any impact, any vibration, any change of pressure caused by moving it could cause it to explode', Navy spokesperson Lieutenant Commander Grzegorz Lewandowski explained at the time.