German authorities were evacuating four small villages close to the Rhine valley Friday as they prepared to defuse a World War II British aerial mine, police said. About 3,000 residents were being evacuated from their homes before a planned evening effort by authorities to defuse the 1,850-kilogram (4,080-pound) device, The Associated Press quoted police as saying. The residents of Geilnau, Holzappel, Horhausen and Scheidt were offered shelter in community buildings in nearby villages while experts defuse the mine, which was expected to take about an hour. The mine was found Thursday during building work on a gas pipe. Aerial bombs and other explosives left over from the Allied bombardment of Germany during World War II still surface regularly more than 60 years after the war's end, often during construction work.
