AN EIGHT-year-old boy got more than he bargained for while out beachcombing with his grandfather.

For little Ben Taylor found what police believe may be an unexploded bomb - a discovery that led to sunseekers being evacuated, a beach being cordoned off and the bomb disposal squad being called.

The youngster, a pupil at Delves Lane Junior School, Consett, found the suspected ordnance on the beach at South Shields yesterday afternoon while enjoying the Bank Holiday sun with his brother Jamie, mother Cheryl and grandparents Chris and Olwen Robinson.

"We were going through the pebbles seeking coloured glass, which my wife collects in a vase," said Mr Robinson, 55, also of Delves Lane.

"My eldest grandson, Ben, alerted me to a rusty old cylinder. We both concluded together that it could be a bomb.

"I dramatised it, as you do with your grandkids. I said 'it could be a bomb from the Second World War', just joking, but the more I looked at it the more I thought it very well could be."

After taking a digital photo of the find, the family actually left it were it was and made their way to the nearby fun fair.

"It was on my mind all the time and as we were coming out of the fun fair the coastguard was coming along the entrance to the pier, so I flagged him down," he said. "I showed it to them and it was enough to alert their interest.

"I led them to it and they agreed that it could very well be a bomb. They immediately started to cordon off the beach, place tape around the area and stop people going onto the pier.

"Before we knew it it became a bit of a drama. There were a couple of police cars, a helicopter hovering overhead and they had sent the picture, via a mobile phone, to somebody at Catterick (Army garrison) to have a look at."

Mr Robinson said young Ben was a little shaken by the find.

"I said to him 'we have had an exciting day at South Shields, haven't we?' and he said 'yeah, but we found a bomb'. I think he was a little taken aback by it. He maybe realised that we could have been in some danger."

A Northumbria police spokesman confirmed officers had been called to the South Promenade.

He added: "It would seem to be an old wartime device of some description."