SCHOOLBOY Peter James got one of the biggest shocks of his life when he went to investigate the mysterious object in his family's vegetable patch.

The six-year-old had spotted the strange bundle at the bottom of his garden when he looked out of his bedroom window one Sunday morning, and along with his father Laurence, 46, went outside to find out more.

The pair thought it was probably just a discarded bin liner, but on closer inspection realised it was an Army gas mask that must have literally dropped from the sky.

The family home, in Newsham, near Richmond, North Yorkshire, is directly below the flight path of military aircraft that use nearby Feldom Training Centre, where troops have been carrying out exercises in readiness for a possible conflict in Iraq.

Peter discovered the gas mask on January 27 and it has since taken pride of place in the family home.

The Ravensworth Primary School pupil said: "It just appeared from nowhere.

"We didn't know what it was but my dad went to get it and we realised it was something a bit more interesting than just a black lump.

"It looks scary and the more I look at it the more I don't like it, but all my friends are keen to have a look and it's a cool thing to find in your garden."

Peter's parents were initially mystified by its sudden appearance, and are convinced now that it had been accidentally dropped by a soldier travelling in an RAF helicopter.

Peter's mother Jill, 45, who is a community nurse in Richmondshire, said it had now become a quirky ornament in the family home.

She said: "It's not every day you get a gas mask landing in your vegetable patch."

A spokesman for the RAF's helicopter command said it could well have been dropped by a soldier on an exercise.

He said: "It sounds as if it is the standard S10 gas mask, but it is incredibly difficult to say for sure and would be hard to trace.

"In the current climate there are a lot of exercises going on so accidents do happen from time to time, but they are very rare, and we will look into this."