IT is believed the unexploded ordnance discovered in Bicester yesterday and Hertfordshire on Wednesday may have been stolen from heritage sites such as battlefields in the UK and abroad.

National policing and crime adviser for English Heritage, Mark Harrison  said: “What we have allegedly got is people [metal] detecting in Southern and Eastern England on what I would call conflict sites and gathering artefacts from these parts.

“The allegation also is that they are travelling to sites in France and Belgium and returning the artefacts to the UK.

“We haven’t got to the stage where we have profiled the exact locations but we are focusing on battlefields in Northern France and Belgium.

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“This has got a serious implication because the allegation is that the munitions have serious explosive potential.

“There are issues of safety to the individuals who excavate them and also communities.”

Mr Harrison said artefacts were normally removed by people who wanted to collect them but there was also a black-market trade in the items.

Excavations of battlefields or similar sites in the UK are normally carried out by professional archaeologists with the permission of English Heritage.


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