Boy, 9, triggers major alert by taking home 'bomb' found in park

Published on Monday 4 April 2011 23:35

THE discovery of an apparent Second World War bomb in an Scottish park triggered a major alert last night that resulted in about 30 families being evacuated from their homes.

Army bomb disposal officers were called to a house in Colliertree Road, Airdrie, and police cordoned off the street for almost three hours until the all-clear was given.

The incident began just after 5pm when Gavin Chapman, nine, arrived at the back garden of his grandmother Helen Chapman's house carrying the 30in-long, heavily corroded device.

Mrs Chapman, 58, said: "He just came rushing into the kitchen shouting that he had found a bomb. He didn't bring it in to the house, but he had carried it all the way back himself.

"As far as we know, it had been lying somewhere on the local nature trail - it's just a wee walkway down in the woods. He was over there with his two uncles and their motorbikes.

"I think he was hunting around there, came across it and brought it back up here."

It is thought the device had been lying exposed among the undergrowth in the shade of a tree and that Gavin managed to pull it free.

Unsure as to whether it was live, Mrs Chapman contacted the police looking for advice on what to do with the device - and they rushed to the scene.

Having called the police, she had time to enlist the help of her family to place the heavy device in a bag of sand and took a photo of it just before the police arrived

"They were around here in three minutes to examine it," she said. "But there weren't sure whether or not it was live either."

The bomb disposal unit was called and the police evacuated the surrounding properties, then cordoned off the street and surrounding lanes.

The majority of families who had to move out stayed with friends and relatives for duration of the incident.

Mrs Chapman's neighbour, John Curran, 74, said: "The first we knew of it was when the police knocked at our door and asked if we'd been talking to our neighbour. I said 'no', and he said that her grandson had brought a bomb up from the nature trail and we would have to leave while it was being checked.

"Nobody panicked or anything, everyone just strolled off out of the street. I just went down to my daughter's for a few hours.

"It's a wee bit of excitement. We don't often see the police in this area -it's very quiet."

A Strathclyde Police spokeswoman confirmed a Second World War device had been discovered but said that following the examination by bomb squad officers, it had been found to be a dummy device and that it had not posed a danger to the public.

Mrs Chapman added: "I didn't really think anything at the time Gavin brought it in - he thought it was great fun - because you just don't expect to have this sort of thing brought to your door, but it's beginning to sink in what could have happened."

Nobody spoken to had any knowledge of the area being bombed during the Second World War or of any previous incidents of ordnance being found in the park.