Mass evacuation after woman took unexploded World War Two bomb into police station

A shopping center in the West Midlands was evacuated on Saturday afternoon after a woman walked into a police station with an unexploded World War Two bomb. The woman found the device during a shed clearance. She then took it to a police station on Homer Road in Solihull. Police confirmed the device which caused the security scare was a Luftwaffe incendiary bomb.

A spokesperson for West Midlands Police tweeted: "Solihull security alert is all over. Army bomb disposal experts identified the item as a WWII Luftwaffe incendiary bomb. Now taken away." Officers quickly cleared the building and also evacuated nearby roads and the town’s Touchwood Shopping Centre at 1pm. The centre was reopened shortly afterwards at around 2.20pm but the police station remained closed as a precaution while officers waited for bomb disposal experts to assess the device.

The security alert was called off at 3.10pm and the device removed from the scene. A spokesperson for West Midlands Police said: “Just before 1pm, a resident brought what is thought to be an unexploded bomb in to Solihull police station. The device was found while the resident was clearing out a shed and is believed to be from the Second World War. The police station was evacuated as a precaution until bomb disposal teams arrived to assess the device.
“Touchwood was originally included in the cordon but on further review and advice from explosive experts, the center was later reopened.” The spokesman added that the risk of it exploding had been "low" but the area had been cleared as a precaution. "The device had been stable for a long time and was likely to remain so," the spokesman said. He said if anyone finds such an item the advice was not to take it anywhere, but to leave it in place and call the police.