Bombs away for navy team

BOMB disposal experts exploded a device in a farmer’s field in one of three incidents they attended within hours.

The Royal Navy team blew up the artillery shell – known as a Boer projectile – at a location at Newton Abbot at 8pm. A navy spokesman said the “historic piece of ordnance” was used between 1887 and 1900.

It was the second incident the same bomb disposal team dealt with on the same evening. Only about an hour earlier it had been called to a home in Brixham where a widow found what Devon and Cornwall Police called a “rocket” in her loft.The device had belonged to her late husband.

The navy team subsequently said it was “polished fuses” and removed it. No other property was affected.

The team had been due to go to Newquay in Cornwall where a member of the public had brought an old hand grenade into the police station just before 4pm.

It attended the Brixham ad- dress and was on its way to Newquay when the call came in from Newton Abbot and it diverted there.

The police station in Newquay was evacuated and cordoned off, as was the neighbouring railway station. The railway station was soon re-opened, although police remained to assist passengers and trains were cancelled or delayed throughout the evening. The navy team did not reach Newquay to remove the grenade until after 10pm.