HANOI - VIETNAMESE army sappers defused a large bomb found under one of the main roads in central Hanoi believed to have been dropped by a US warplane more than 30 years ago, the Vietnam News daily reported on Tuesday.

The bomb was discovered by a telecoms worker about 1.5m beneath Hai Ba Trung Street not far from the railway station. Vietnam News said it weighed 250kg but the Hanoi Police-run Capital Security newspaper said it was 113kg.

Munitions left over from decades of war in Vietnam still kill scores of people each year but are rarely discovered in cities.

US warplanes bombed Hanoi from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s. -- REUTERS