Pictured: Seventeen injured as American bomb from Second World War explodes in Germany

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Police said the bomb went over when an excavator in a digger drove over it. The seventeen victims have been treated for light injuries or shock, mostly auditory injuries, while the driver of the digger injured his hand.

A large-scale rescue operation had to be launched, and officials said they had been lucky the damage had not been worse.

WWII menace: A photographer documents the devastation after the bomb exploded, injuring at least 15 and smashing buildings in the area

From another era: The bomb, the bottom of which is shown by a member of the bomb disposal unit here, may have been covered in rust, but it was apparently still in working order

“The hole was astoundingly small for such a large bomb full of so many explosives,” Armin Gebhard, head of the Arnsberg department for military ordnance removal, told German news website The Local.

“But of course it damaged all the surrounding buildings too. We are really happy it wasn't worse.”

The 550-pound (250-kilo) bomb had been covered in rust and tarnished with age - but it was obviously still in good mechanical working order.

Explosion: Karl-Friedrich Schroeder of the explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) unit measures the scene of detonation of the U.S. Air Force bomb

The explosion shattered windows in two nearby industrial buildings.

Unexploded bombs from World War II are still found frequently in Germany more than 60 years after the conflict's end.

Though police said they have not had such a large accident in years, people have periodically been killed when they stumbled across the bombs.

In 1994 three construction workers and eight bystanders were killed when just such an accident occurred, with the explosion from the bomb tearing through cars and buildings in Berlin.