Man finds bomb in field

Mark Leeming didn't panic when he spotted what looked like an unexploded bomb in a field.

The 33-year-old former soldier, who happens to work for mine clearance experts MineTech at Mitcheldean, said it wasn't a 'big issue' when he spotted the incendiary in a field at Shipton Oliffe, near Cheltenham.

Convinced the two-inch mortar wasn't active, he calmly took a photo of it and emailed it to a work colleague for confirmation on Wednesday night.

He then rang police who sent a bomb disposal team.

But he has warned others without expert knowledge to always leave any suspicious-looking device well alone and call police immediately.

"I must be one of the best people possible to find something like this," he said. "I was in the Royal Artillery for eight years so I had a bit of knowledge from that and now I run projects doing mine clearance overseas."

The company he works for, MineTech, is a worldwide humanitarian and commercial de-mining specialist. The company has UN contracts to clear mines in Afghanistan and Sudan.

But Mark said: "It was still quite a surprise. I was chopping some thistles and just saw this thing lying on the ground in a field, completely exposed, about 5 metres from my garden.

"No one goes in that field. But I wasn't going to panic as I knew what it was and I was 99 per cent sure it was of no threat from my experience. There was no fuse on the front so it was incomplete.

"People can overreact. It was a British mortar and could be potentially dangerous but if they're inert or defused they're safe.

"But that decision should only be made by an Explosive Ordinance Disposal expert."

Mr Jennings took a snap and sent it to one of his team who confirmed it was nothing to worry about.

"It was next to a mound of dirt, so maybe had been left when they built the A40," he said.

"Or it could have fallen from the back of an Army truck. This make and model were used from 1920 to 1970. Its shrapnel is potentially lethal."

Two Royal Logistics Corps bomb disposal experts came after Mr Jennings called police at 7.30am.

They safely removed and disposed of the incendiary.