A teenage worker has told how he and a colleague picked up a suspected unexploded Second World War bomb this morning while digging a hole.

Unaware what the device was, Lloyd Baker and his boss even unscrewed the top and chucked it on the floor while putting up a fence in the car park of a Maidstone coffee shop.

It was only after the pair spoke to an ex-soldier who came into the shop in Cavendish Way, Bearsted, about the suspected shell that police were called at 9.30am.

A bomb disposal team was then drafted in to the Cavendish Coffee and Gift Shop.

Army staff later moved the device to open fields nearby to carry out a controlled explosion.

Lloyd, 19, was working with a colleague from K&C Fencing when the pair came across the foot-long rusty device - similar in shape to a wine bottle.

But after inspecting it and unbelievably unscrewing the top, they discarded it and carried on with their work.

Lloyd said: "We had a look at it, unscrewed the top and then chucked it on the floor and carried on.

"It was only later on when we spoke to this chap, who came into the shop and asked him what he thought it was, that we realised it might be a bomb. He told us to call the police."

Mick Thurgood, the 77-year-old man who advised them to raise the alarm, said: "I wasn't certain, but I was in the forces and I thought it looked like a shell."

As investigations continued, a cordon was thrown around the bungalow and several vehicles.

Coffee shop owner Alison Bellamy said: "This is our busiest time on a Friday, but it needs to be done.

"It was found when we had some work done to renew a fence."

Video: Bomb disposal team in Bearsted