A shocked father called the police after his children dug up a mortar shell in his front garden.

The road was cordoned off while Army bomb disposal experts removed the device and made it safe.

Jason Taylor, 38, was doing up his house in Barnardiston Road, St Anne's, Colchester, when he spotted the bomb in his shrubbery.

He said: "Last weekend we put flowers in round the border and the kids must have dug it up then. This weekend I was loading up the car and saw it there and I thought I had better call someone."

Mr Taylor said it was lucky his children Jasmine, 13, Nicky, 14, and Sam, 16, were not hurt.

"I was more concerned about the kids than anything else. They could have been hurt with it. It must have been in the border for some time because it was well corroded."

It is not the first time Mr Taylor has called the emergency services. About 18 months ago the boat he spent seven years restoring sank at Foulness Sands with him and his three children aboard.

Published Monday, March 11, 2002