A beach in Teignmouth had to be evacuated on Sunday after a first world war bomb was found in the sand.

Sgt Philip Smith, of Teignmouth Police, said they got a call at 2.15pm.

'We had a report from two men on Back Beach. They saw a cone-shaped metal object protruding from the sand. They dug round it to see what it was and recovered what they thought was an unexploded bomb.'

The rusting, barnacle-covered relic was found by police next to a storm wall beside the hole it had been recovered from.

Sgt Smith said: 'I wasn't happy with what I saw so I immediately put a cordon all round the local area and streets preventing any public access to the street.

'It was a very busy hot day. There was a veterans' parade at the time on the Den and a fly-past of different types of aircraft.

'It was close to a residential area and I was concerned that it was near the landing point for dinghies, so people landing there had to walk around the side of it.'

Vanesa Phelps, manager of the Ship Inn, Queen Street, said: 'The whole of the beach was sealed off. The police were very, very professional.'

The Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team was contacted at Didcot, which sent a Royal Navy bomb disposal team from Plymouth. A team of four made the bomb safe and removed it around 5pm.

RN chief diver John Ramshaw confirmed that it was a first world war bomb, making it nearly 100 years old.

'It was quite corroded and had some holes in it. When explosive gets wet and dries out, it becomes unstable. The explosive had been washed out but you have to plan for a worse case scenario.

'I think it was English. There's a plaque on it which looks English – we've been trying to polish it up. I think the planes used to ditch any bombs they had left over the water – it's probably one of those.

'It was probably buried in the sand and over time moved up the beach.'