A BOMB scare in Whiteley was called off when a suspected WWII bomb turned out to be a car alternator.
Work at the Whiteley shopping development was halted when a digger unearthed a bomb-shaped object.
Builders were preparing the ground to lay slabs around a roundabout at the entrance to the shopping precinct when they made the worrying discovery.
Robert Boddy, 41, plant operator, was driving the digger when the object was discovered.
He said: ‘The foreman was just kicking it around, I recognised that it could be something more serious so I told him to stop.’
Whiteley Way was closed for 45 minutes as a 100m precautionary cordon was put in place.
The object was unearthed at 11.30am but work was resumed by 12.30pm.
Alex Humphreys, team leader from nearby Tesco’s, said: ‘We just carried on as normal, they shut the road so the store went quite for a bit but it turns out it was just a car alternator.’
Postman Dave Simpson was on his rounds in the area at the time of the incident. He said: ‘I grew up in Portsmouth and it’s part and parcel of living round here. I wasn’t that bothered, I’m used to things like that, I just carried on working.’
The Royal Navy bomb disposal team were called and they took the object away.
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