OOL playing field and neighbours were evacuated on Wednesday after a man found a Second World War detonating device in his garden shed.

Officers from the High Barnet Safer Neighbourhood Team were called to Clifford Road at around 2pm when the man called police saying he had found a device the size of a baked bean tin stamped explosive.

Police cleared the area and called in specialist officers to look at the device, which had Fuse 206, Mark 2 with copper asbestos washers’ written on it and was date stamped 1942.

They made it safe and took it away for examination.

PC Karen Lawson said: “The residents father was involved in making timing devices for fuses used to detonate torpedoes during the second world war. “It was unknown whether this fuse had been kept as a souvenir or whether it still had the potential to explode. It was found at the back of the shed whilst clearing out.

“As explosives get old they can become very unstable, so our resident did the right thing in calling us. Thankfully no one was hurt and device did not go off.”