BANK Holiday fun at Leysdown beach on Sheppey ended abruptly when a little boy picked up a live bomb.

The beach was packed with holidaymakers at the time, on Monday afternoon.

The five-year-old carried the five inch shell over to his father, a serving soldier, who had just returned from a tour of duty with the Princess of Wales’ Royal Regiment.

He immediately recognised it as a bomb and contacted the police.

Sheppey coastguards cleared the area to await bomb disposal experts to arrive from their Royal Naval base in Portsmouth.

The bomb was almost certainly left over from the Second World War when British ships regularly jettisoned ammunition.

Because the bomb had been found below the high water mark, the team had to be called up from the Exposive Ordnance Department in Hampshire and not the Royal Engineers at Chatham, which deal with bombs above the tideline.

The four-man team of the RN Second Diving Unit, led by Lt Cmdr Justin Hains, set off a controlled explosion to make it safe, detonating the bomb at 6pm, but the beach was not re-opened to the public until 8pm.

Anton Hanney for the Unit, said: “It was a practice bomb as opposed to one to be used in combat. But it was packed with a live charge and could undoubtedly have killed the child if it had gone off.

“There are a great many of these old wartime bombs which were dumped at sea in that area of the Thames Estuary, which come to light from time to time. We warn people not to touch them but to contact the authorities straight away.”

Sheppey Coastguard Ian Goodwin added: “The Coastguard and the EOD would like to record their thanks to the Little Retreat Cafe which provided free refreshments throughout the incident.”