Family's lucky escape as LIVE incendiary bomb from Second World War discovered on farm
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Lawley Ward was clearing one of the buildings at her parents’ farm in West Boldon when she uncovered a German bomb thought to be more than 80 years old.
At first she thought the metal object was a stopcock, but a closer inspection from dad James, 75, uncovered the truth.
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Hide AdThe family contacted Northumbria Police, who in turn called in the bomb disposal team from Catterick.
After careful examinations and X-rays on Thursday, July 2, the teams made the shocking discovery that the device was still live – and that Lawley and her loved ones had an extremely lucky escape.
The mum-of-two, who works as a hairdresser, said she had struck the object just moments before with a shovel and a brush without knowing what it was.
It was a tense wait for Lawley and her family as the teams carried out the necessary checks on the German incendiary bomb, which later led to a controlled explosion in one of the farm’s fields.
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Hide AdShe continued: “They said they couldn’t stress enough how lucky we had been because it was active – it was live.”
The family had to rush into action to secure the safety of the farm’s animals, before watching on from a safe distance as the device was dismantled to prevent a fire, and then exploded.
A Northumbria Police spokesperson said on Friday, July 3: “Shortly before 2.45pm yesterday we were contacted by a member of the public who had found a suspected unexploded Second World War bomb at a farm in West Boldon.
“Officers attended along with bomb disposal experts who confirmed the item was an unexploded German incendiary aircraft bomb.
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Hide Ad“A controlled explosion was subsequently carried out. Nobody was injured and we would like to thank the member of the public who contacted us about the item.”
Lawley added: “I do feel very lucky – we all could have died. The whole farm could have gone up.
“Some of the officers said they had never seen anything like that. It’s a real piece of history.”