DOZENS of homes had to be evacuated after police found a suspicious home-made device strapped to a tree at a Kent beauty spot.

The discovery was made by a PC who was investigating a burnt-out car near to the explosive device on the Coney Banks in Chatham on Sunday.

He noticed a piece of pipe taped to the tree with a fuse coming out of the top and immediately called for support.

Police now believe the explosive material was similar to that found in a firework but are not ruling out something more serious at the moment.

The contents had been crammed into a piece of scaffolding pipe and glued into place with a long fuse sticking out of the top and army officers' initial thoughts were of something more sinister than a home-made firework.

Police are continuing to investigate the device's contents.

An army bomb disposal unit arrived at the scene at about 11am on Sunday to examine the pipe and confirmed there was explosive material inside. Police immediately threw a large cordon around the scene and began an evacuation of nearby homes in Magpie Hall Road, The Ridgeway and Walderslade Road.

A police spokesman said: “A police patrol found the device strapped to a tree and we called the bomb disposal team.

“The device is a crude home-made explosive so we decided to evacuate parts of the surrounding area. The device has what appears to be a firework in it."

Army teams carried out two controlled explosions at about 3pm to eliminate any risk posed by the makeshift device.

Anyone who may have information is asked call police on 01634 884 252 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.