Controlled explosion carried out after unexploded bombs reported on Wigan borough street

A man living in Faith Street, Leigh, rang 999 after realising that the ordnance he had discovered while using his metal detector on Rivington Pike earlier might be dangerous.

Emergency service vehicles were called to the home – which is very close to a petrol station – but allowed people to stay indoors while the 80-year-old devices were examined and then taken to Pennington Flash country park to be detonated.

A crew from Leigh fire station, called to the emergency at 1am on Sunday September 3, used a drone with a thermal imaging camera to ensure that there were no members of the public nearby and to secure the area while the historic devices were buried and then blown up.

Watch manager Steve Waygood said: “It was a good sized bang when it exploded. They heard it at the station and in Lowton.

"Homes were not evacuated though because the fuse in the state it was found was perfectly safe. However, no-one wanted to be taking it home, so it was detonated.”

The emergency was declared over at about 2.30am.

A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police said: “At around 10:10pm yesterday (Saturday September 2), officers were called to reports of two potentially historic detonators at a property on Faith Street in Leigh.

“Emergency services and EOD officers attended the scene to assess the two objects and they were removed from the area to be destroyed in a controlled explosion.”