PEOPLE find all sorts of weird and wonderful things dumped in skips, but an unexploded Second World War artillery shell must top the list of unusual objects.

That was the unnerving sight that confronted maintenance engineer Chris Merry at 7am today.

Mr Merry, from Cowley, was checking in the skip, in a yard behind the City Sightseeing Oxford bus depot, in Osney Mead Industrial Estate, shortly after starting work for the day.

And, along with the usual debris, rubbish and rubble, the 50-year-old spotted the old shell.

He said: “I just saw it lying there. It didn’t seem to worry me at first but I knew it was a shell. It could have been dead or alive.”

Mr Merry pulled the shell from the rubbish and stood it up on the ground about 20 yards from where he had found it.

“It was really heavy, dented and had a little brass cap on it.

He added: “It didn’t look like it had come out of a plane as there were no fins on it.

“It was about two feet long and 10 inches in diameter.

“We thought we better let someone know and my boss phoned the police.”

Police cordoned off the area and evacuated offices close to the location of the shell before calling specialist teams for an assessment.

Army bomb disposal experts, from the Royal Logistics Corps based at Northolt, west London, arrived at 12.30pm and, following a short inspection to confirm the shell was not dangerous, a member of the bomb disposal team tucked it under his arm and loaded it into a van.

Thames Valley Police spokesman Chris Kearney said: “Bomb disposal experts were called out. They carried out an inspection and determined it did not pose a threat.”

The shell, believed to date from the Second World War, is thought to have been illegally fly-tipped in the skip.

Mr Kearney added that whoever had dumped the bomb had acted in an irresponsible manner.

“There was a potential risk to people’s lives,” he said.

“In terms of our action, we always have to treat this type of call-out as very serious with the potential to cause great damage.

“There is also the time and involvement of bomb disposal experts and it could have taken them away from attending an emergency.”

Mr Kearney said if people discover an old bomb or shell they should call police and allow them to examine the item where it has been found.