A STUNTNEY farmer was given the shock of a lifetime after the innocuous looking object he ran over turned out to be an unexploded World War Two bomb.

The farmer was ploughing a patch of land just off Stuntney Causeway on Monday when he ran over the device in his tractor.

After realising that the object could be a bomb, the farmer quickly contacted police and an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team from RAF Wittering near Peterborough was also contacted.

The bomb disposal experts later confirmed the device, which was about the size of a two litre bottle of lemonade, was a five inch barrage rocket head incendiary.

During the war, the rocket was fired from ships to test their range before high explosives were then used.

Sqr Leader (Ret’d) Tony Walsh, from RAF Wittering, said: “We understand that the farmer was cultivating the land and had brought the device to the surface before running over it.

“The device was carefully moved away from overhead power lines and made safe with a controlled explosion.”

The spokesman added that the device was allowed to cool before being collected and taken back to RAF Wittering for disposal.