BERLIN (Reuters) - A World War Two bomb found in central Germany exploded on Tuesday, killing three people, as disposal experts were about to defuse it, local authorities said.

Six people were injured, two seriously, when the bomb dropped by Allied aircraft on the university town of Goettingen went off unexpectedly, the town’s fire department said.

Authorities had evacuated thousands of residents beforehand so experts could defuse the 500 kg bomb, a fire department spokesman said. Bombs left over from World War Two are regularly defused in Germany and rarely explode unexpectedly.