WORKMEN digging up a front garden got a fright when they discovered an unexploded Second World War bomb.
The device was under a lawn in a built-up residential area yards from an infant school.
Householders in St David's Road, Hextable, were evacuated, while bomb disposal experts were called in to carry out a controlled explosion in fields outside the village.
Lynne Sutton, of St David's Road, said: "We all had to sit on the green for a couple of hours while they blew it up. Two people came down from the bomb squad at Heathrow."
Mrs Sutton, who is married to Derek and has daughters Kathryn, 14, Hannah, 16, Jemma, 16, and son David, 13, said three households were evacuated from noon to 3pm.
Roger Brindle, headteacher of nearby Hextable Junior School, said: "It is a bit of a shock. I have never come across that before but of course there was quite a lot of activity in this area during the war. It is not the sort of thing you expect to find in your front garden.
"I should think people will be careful when they dig their spades into their gardens now."
A north Kent police spokesman said buried Second World War bombs are often unearthed in the area.
April 29, 2003 13:00
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