The shell of a second world war bomb washed up on Power Station Beach on Lamma Island early yesterday.

Brett Elliott, one of a group of island residents who had gone down to the beach to watch the pounding waves, said the shell appeared to have been on the seabed before being dislodged.An officer from the Explosive Ordinance Disposal Bureau later examined the shell before taking it away for further analysis.

Police, called to the scene by one of the residents, said that the shell belonged to a second world war bomb, adding it was 1.2 metres in length and 1 metre in diameter.