Rome’s Ciampino airport was closed for a few hours on Thursday after German bombs from the World War II era were found near its runway.
Army experts were called in to defuse the bombs, weighing 150 kilograms and containing about 75 kilograms of explosive, the Italian Defence Ministry said in a statement.
“The bomb disposal team has safely removed the objects,” Aeroporti di Roma, the company managing Rome’s airports, wrote on Twitter shortly before 6 pm (1700 GMT), announcing that Ciampino had reopened.
Flights were delayed or diverted to Rome’s bigger airport, Fiumicino. Ciampino is mostly used by low-cost airlines.
Ciampino Airport was opened in 1916 and is one of the oldest airports still in operation.
After the opening of Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport, Ciampino handled almost exclusively charter and executive flights for more than three decades.
Growing steadily over the years, the early 1970s saw the two runways extended and an additional runway constructed.
At this stage, Rome Ciampino Airport (CIA) was operated by the Aeroporti di Roma organisation, which was privatised in the year 2000.
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