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Live: Homes evacuated in Keyham after suspected bomb found

Live Homes evacuated in Keyham after suspected bomb found
Residents have said police have just knocked on their doors and told them to leave their homes

Bomb was "hit with spade" as Dad dug out foundations for extension

The man who discovered the large suspected Second World War bomb in a back yard of a Keyham property has revealed how he initially spotted the mystery object "about a week ago".

The man, who we are not identifying, said he was helping dig out the rear yard of his daughter's home with a builder, with the aim of preparing the ground for an extension.

He said he and the builder have been digging deeper and deeper to find hard ground and satisfy the wishes of a building inspector.

He told PlymouthLive: "We've been digging out for the foundations for an extension. Every time we reached what we thought was hard ground the rain would come and we'd find we had to keep digging down.

"We actually found it about a week ago. It was just outside the building line and the building inspector said we needed trench of around 650mm. I hit something with a spade but we weren't sure what it was at first. Since then we've had so much rain, the bank collapsed, then there was more rain on Friday and it's been revealed more and more.

"It's about one metre long and half a metre in diameter. We've found a cap and a round circle thread sheared off or broke off.

"By this point my wife said we really should just call the police and alert them. I took photos and sent them off and a sergeant in Exeter rang me five minutes saying he needed to send them off to EOD. Five minutes later there's a knock on the door and police officers asking to have a look. The next minute they're suggesting a cordon with a 200m radius.

"I've been looking at the Plymouth Bombs Map and found red dogs around St Michael Avenue area, so there were certainly bombs dropped in this area during the war.

"At last count I saw 15 or 16 police cars around the area and it looks like a major incident. EOD have already arrived and lots of the local residents have been told to leave their homes."

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