Update | Second world war shell found in Victoria Park destroyed at the fourth attempt

Traffic ground to a standstill on roads around Hong Kong’s Victoria Park this afternoon as police bomb disposal officers detonated a second world war artillery shell.

A controlled explosion was successfully carried out at 4.20pm, a police spokesman said, following three earlier attempts that failed.

In order to ensure public safety during the operation, a section of the Island Eastern Corridor expressway and nearby roads in Causeway Bay were closed, according to the Transport Department.

At about 4.15pm, westbound vehicles were jammed bumper to bumper on the expressway and queues stretched for more than 3km from the site to Taikoo Shing.

Eastbound traffic from Central to Causeway Bay in Wan Chai along Gloucester Road and Harcourt Road and Connaught Road Central also came to a standstill, while queues stretched from the Canal Road flyover in Wan Chai to Aberdeen.

This morning, a senior police officer said soft ground, thick casing and the installation of wiring had hampered their efforts to destroy the shell at the site. 

The drama began on Wednesday when construction workers building a new link road on the edge of the park unearthed the decades-old munition.