Meadowhall Retail Park bomb: Picture shows the bomb which brought popular retail park to standstill

Workmen have told of their shock at digging up the suspected World War munition as they worked at Meadowhall Retail Park on Tuesday morning, as part of a scheme to put electric car charging points in the car park.

The dirty piece of rusting artillery can be seen to be several inches long, with one of the drains in the car park off Sheffield Road, in Carbrook, giving an impression of its size.

Workmen who were at the scene when the suspected bomb was found say they dug the munition up in a mechanical digger as they carried out their jobs, at around 10.30am.

Mark Potter, of MAP electrical, said that the shell appeared in the scoop. He said ground workers noticed it, and shouted some swear words before adding: “It's a bomb!”

Workers told The Star that they put a description of what they had found into the internet, and became worried when they found something similar online. They then straight away rang the police, who they said arrived very quickly. At that stage they moved away from the bomb to try and find a safe distance.

Mark admitted they were worried, and said: “We fenced it off and phoned the police. They were here by 8am, and then they called the army in, who got here at about 12.30pm.”

Several police cars were at the scene while soldiers in uniform worked on the scene. Police officers in uniform manned a cordon marked with tape around 100 metres from the digger which had unearthed the shell.

The army finally left the scene at just before 1.30pm, with the shops and car parks re-opening soon afterwards.

South Yorkshire Police said that they had responded to reports of a suspected World War Two explosive device had been discovered while groundworks were being carried out at the retail park, and called an army bomb disposal team

People were advised to avoid the area while work was carried out to work out the origin of the device and make it safe.