Girl sparks bomb alert

RESIDENTS were evacuated from their homes after a 10-year-old girl found a suspected Second World War bomb.

Eva Walton, 10, of Priory Copse, Peppard Common, came home with the 2in long piece of rusty metal and put it in her garden.

On Wednesday the alarm was raised by a man from Goring who called Thames Valley Police after reading about her find online.

Officers went to the street at 7am and cordorned it off and Eva and her parents, Jonathan, 49, and Kate, 38, and the couple’s four-month-old daughter Isla were evacuated from their home, as were two neighbours.

They were out of their houses for several hours while police waited for the army “bomb squad” to arrive only to discover the object was harmless.

Mrs Walton, who is on maternity leave, said Eva had discovered the piece of metal while on her way home from Peppard Primary School. She said: “It was about two weeks ago that she found it at the top of our road on the right-hand side near a gate that leads to a big field.

“She gave it a clean and put it outside and wanted to take it to school for show and tell.

“We didn’t want her to without us checking and ensuring it was safe.”

Her husband asked people on a local online page if anybody knew what it was.

Mrs Walton said: “They believed it may have been a mortar round without its tail.

“It’s a good job that we checked it out as I don’t think the school would have been too impressed.”

The Ministry of Defence’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal team arrived at the scene at 1pm to inspect the object using equipment including an X-ray device and confirmed there were no explosives inside.

Mrs Walton said: “Phew, what a relief. Thank you to the gentleman who initially reported it to the police. Better to be safe than sorry. However, I think we will stick to exploring rocks and shells next time.”

Martin Himpson, 64, a handyman, reported the suspected bomb to the police in the early hours of Wednesday as he “couldn’t sleep for worrying about it” after seeing the online post.

He said: “I recognised the shape and size of it. A friend of mine, who had a metal detector, found something similar several years ago, so I put two and two together and the shape and size matched the 2in mortar.

“There used to be a military base close by where they used to practice with ammunition.”

Neighbours Keith and Val Jefferies left their home at 8.15 am.

Mrs Jefferies said the police told them they didn’t have to evacuate before adding: “Everybody else had gone and we thought, ‘Oh well, we’re still going to go’.”

Mr Jefferies added: “You don’t want to go back until it’s safe.”

Ewan Ashley, 50, another neighbour, invited people to come to his house to work and for tea.

Mr Ashley, who works for Oxford University Press, said: “At first, I thought it was a joke. I was up already so didn’t really pay much attention until I came home after dropping the kids off at school and saw the police car and saw it was all going off on the WhatsApp group.”