Family's quiet day on the beach ends with Doncaster homes evacuated in bomb alert

But for Emma Keeton and her family, it ended up with a section of their Doncaster street evacuated after they inadvertently brought home a wartime bomb!

The family headed off to a quiet section of the east coast at Aldbrough, near Hull, for what was to be their first outing together since lockdown measures were eased.

They were having a fine day padding in the chilly North Sea, and picking up what they thought to be fossils.

Step brother and step sister Josh Quarton and Halle Roberts, both 15, found a big rock to stand on – and underneath it found what appeared to be a big piece of metal.

They picked it up – and the family wondered it it was perhaps a fishing weight. When they left to go home, they threw the ‘fishing weight in the car with the fossils and drive back the the family home on Springwood Close.

Curious as to what they had picked up, Emma put something on social media asking if anyone knew what it might be – and was quickly told it was a bomb and that she must call the police!

Officers were sent out and immediately evacuated their house, plus those of the next door neighbours, with five police vehicles and seven officers on the scene.

She said: “The kids had just been messing about and were looking for fossils in the water, and found this thing that was out as big as a hand. We never thought it could be an explosive. We just chucked it in with the fossils.

“We’ve since been told there was an old military base near there. We were looking for fossils, not bombs.

“It was an interesting shape and had a silver tip.

“I put something on social media, and 45 comments later, I realised I needed to ring the police.”

Initially, she rang 999, but was told it was not an emergency and should log it with 101.

Two hours later, a police car arrived, with the officers described as saying: “Oh my God, it’s a bomb!”

The suspected bomb was in the garage. Emma said the police liaised with experts on their radios while they were there.

“The police were there for about two hours, and in the end, they took it away,” said Emma. “You wouldn’t believe how many people walked their dogs past to see what was going on.

“We’d driven back from Hull with it in the boot! How bizarre. Looking back, you worry that you could have been blown up.

“It was on the Saturday that we went to the beach, and on the Sunday the police came out. I think we were a bit scared, thinking ‘what have we brought home?’

“Looking back, it’s quite funny and will certainly be something to tell the grandchildren one day!”

She said she had been told it was a 28-30mm calibre shell that would have been used to blow up tanks and aircraft.

A spokesman for South Yorkshire Police confirmed they were called at around 3.30pm on Sunday May 31 following concerns for safety, after a suspected World War Two munition was brought back from a beach to a property in Branton, Doncaster.

She added: “Police liaised with specialist EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) staff who advised that officers could safely recover the item from the property.”

Earlier this year, Harewood Road, on Town Moor, Doncaster, was also evacuated after what neighbours believe may have been on old army mortar shell was found. On that occasion an army bomb disposal team was sent out.

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