RESIDENTS were evacuated from a town street when a man found a live World War Two bomb dumped in a skip outside his house.

Thai Hayward of Oaklands, Ross-on-Wye, shook the rusty explosive before having the shock of his life when he realised what it was

The flytipper of the deadly device had placed it in a plastic bag and tried to cover it with soil, but the 24-year-old Ross Rugby Club player spotted the handle around 6.30pm last Tuesday (June 6) and pulled it out to find the rusting munition inside.

“I shook it and held it near my face before I realised what it was,” said the 24-year-old. “When the penny dropped, I put it down and rang the police and reported it!”

When they saw the photo he sent them, they rushed to the scene and evacuated a 100-yard-long stretch of the street and called in the bomb squad.

West Mercia Police arrived within ten minutes of being alerted, quickly followed by the bomb disposal team who removed it and destroyed it.

Although it looked “too rusty to have gone bang”, the ordnance team told him “it was highly explosive and appeared active”.

A West Mercia Police spokesperson said: “We were called to Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire on Tuesday, June 6, after an unexploded ordnance was discovered in a skip.

“The Explosive Ordnance Disposal team attended and disposed of the device. The incident isn’t regarded as suspicious.”

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence said: “An army EOD team from Ashchurch in Gloucestershire attended Oaklands in Ross-on-Wye. The item was identified as a legacy World War Two munition and was destroyed.”