Girl, 7, digs up 'WW2 bomb' on Norfolk beach

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-27073402

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A suspected World War Two phosphorus bomb dug up by a seven-year-old girl on a Norfolk beach burst into flames when her mother prodded it with a fork.

May Archibald-Green, from Berkshire, was on holiday with her family when she found the device with her metal detector on Holkham beach on Thursday.

She said it "looked like a rock", and began to spark when her mother Judi Green prodded it with a garden fork.

Ms Green said police told her it sounded like a wartime phosphorus bomb.

The area has cordoned off and an Army bomb disposal unit is expected to make sure the device safe later.

"It was really sort of scary," said May.

"I didn't know that was going to happen."

Ms Green said: "May was just playing with the detector, she'd found tent pegs and a deckchair, then this thing started giving off really loud beeps so we dug around," said Ms Green.

"We had absolutely no idea it might be anything explosive.

"It looked like a big lump of charcoal with a smaller one next to it. I was just tapping it and it went off like a huge match being struck.

"We jumped back and it burnt for about 10 minutes."

She said Norfolk Police told her it "sounded like" a World War Two phosphorous bomb when she described it over the phone and told her a bomb disposal unit would deal with the device.