Son finds WWII bomb while clearing out father's flat

A SON stumbled across a Second World War bomb hanging from a beam in his father's flat as he was clearing it out.

Fred Collier was so shocked to find the 1930s shell that he immediately took it outside and put it on some grass. He then called police and Army bomb disposal experts rushed to the scene around 4pm yesterday.

Mr Collier, a telecommunications consultant from Leith, was clearing the flat in Commercial Wharf, Leith, after the death of his father last month.

He said: "I started cleaning the sink, put the tap on and was waiting for the water to get hot.

"I was scanning the flat to see what was of interest and what we could keep or sell and saw this thing hanging from a beam in the kitchen ceiling and just thought 'that's a bomb'.

"There were no markings and no plaque. The body of the bomb was a foot long and there were six fins attached to it.

"The fins had holes in them and wire had been threaded through them so the bomb could hang from the beam."

The 52-year-old said his first reaction was to get it out of the flat.

"For all I knew it could have been live but I just thought I couldn't leave it there so I took it outside immediately and put it beside a wall," he said.

"I thought that, in doing this, the blast would only be one way.

"I had no idea if it would go off – I was just hoping for the best.

"I then phoned the police and they came down themselves to have a look at it. They said they didn't like the look of it and so phoned the bomb squad."

Mr Collier's father died of cancer on January 19 at St Columba's Hospice.

He said he had no idea how the bomb came to be in the flat but that his father Alan, who was 73 when he died, had a history of eccentric behaviour.

He said: "He was always doing funny things like buying paintings. His house was full of all kinds of weird stuff.

"He had some crazy schemes. You never knew what he would get up to. He had a very wicked sense of humour. God knows how he got hold of this bomb."

The bomb squad was called at around 4pm. An Army spokeswoman said the bomb posed a threat but was in a good enough condition to be moved safely.

She said: "Although this resident should be commended for his bravery in moving the device, it is not recommended for anyone in a similar situation. The safe course of action is to call the police.

"These kind of devices from the Second World War do turn up from time to time so anyone coming across one of them should alert the authorities.

"There are established procedures in dealing with these situations and those were followed exactly in this situation with the area cordoned off."

She added that the mortar had been taken away by the bomb team and disposed of in a "safe and controlled environment".