ARMY bomb disposal experts were called in after a live Second World War mortar bomb was dug up in a North Yorkshire village.

Police evacuated 15 people and set up a 100-metre cordon around the area where the shell was found at Foston, between York and Malton. A man using a mechanical digger alerted police after he uncovered the bomb just before 3pm yesterday. A Royal Logistics Corps bomb disposal team from Catterick went to the scene and examined the device, which was 18 inches long and three inches in diameter with a nine-inch fin, before destroying it in a controlled explosion.

Sergeant Steve Snodgrass, of North Yorkshire Police, said the area had been used as a store for military equipment during the Second World War.

Updated: 09:55 Saturday, March 01, 2003