ARMY bomb disposal experts were called in on Wednesday after a wartime shell was unearthed in the back garden of a Kent home.

The corroded 10-inch long mortar shell was discovered by a workman digging with a shovel.

It was carried to the front of the property in Albion Road, Broadstairs, and police were alerted shortly before 11am.

The device was taken to a stretch of shoreline at Joss Gap, near the Captain Digby pub on the clifftop at Kingsgate, and a controlled explosion was carried out.

Sgt Julien Lawton of Thanet Police said the Emergency Ordinance Disposal (EOD) team, which came from Folkestone to deal with the shell, declared the device highly unstable and decided it could not be safely exploded in a populated area.

He said: "The EOD team placed the shell in a bomb proof box and took it to Joss Bay. We cleared the area of people so they could do a controlled explosion of the shell.

"The EOD said the shell was probably fired at passing enemy planes during World War 2, but didn’t explode and fell to the ground where it was buried until today."

The EOD team exploded the shell just before 1.30pm.