HONG KONG -- Local police finished defusing a World War II bomb on Friday in a construction site in China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, after 20 hours of operation, the third time in the same location this year.

The bomb was discovered at around 16:30 local time (0830 GMT) on Thursday at the construction site in downtown Hong Kong, according to the police.

Roads and buildings nearby had been cordoned off and people evacuated, and officers of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Bureau of the Hong Kong police had been on the scene to deal with the wartime device.

The operation ended at noon, when the device, confirmed to be U.S.-made explosive weighing about 450 kg, was successfully disarmed by the EOD bureau.

This is the third time within half a year that an explosive device has been found at the same location, where construction work of a railway link is in progress.

In January, two unexploded World War II bombs of the same type were unearthed at the same site and disposed of by the EOD bureau.