People are being advised to stay away from their windows amid a bomb alert

by Stephen Waite

A bomb disposal team has carried out a controlled explosion after the discovery of a suspicious device in Sittingbourne.

Police were called to a property in Rectory Road after the bomb was found at 11.10am today.

The Ministry of Defence Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit was called and identified the object as an "aerial drop incendiary".

It was destroyed by the team at 1.20pm.

A Kent Police spokesman said the alarm was raised by people who were clearing a friend's house.

PCSOs alerted neighbours and advised them to stay away from their windows.

Cllr Martin McCusker, the Labour representative for Roman Ward, which includes Rectory Road, was in the area at the time of the alert.

He said: "One of the residents used to collect old things and there was what looked like an unexploded device.

"The police came and cordoned the road off and started evacuating homes from the end of Rectory Road to a third of the way down.

"But five minutes later they came out and stopped and started letting people back in their houses.

"They must have initially considered it was something live but then realised it wasn't. They were there quite a while."