A nine-year-old who went fishing caught a WW1 bomb – leading armed cops to swoop on his family home.

William Hartley netted the deadly munition in a canal with his magnet fishing equipment.

The youngster had been given the gear as a Christmas present and had spent the next few days recovering “old chains and pennies” with the help of his grandad.

But when William hauled in the undetonated charge and then brought it back home, his concerned dad Andrew Hartley, 41, called the police.

In the hours that followed, armed cops descended on the property and began to guard the deadly munition while bomb disposal officers conducted extensive checks on it.

And eventually, the live explosive was shipped away to be destroyed, much to the relief of Andrew who was put on standby to “evacuate” his home during the 10-hour ordeal.

Andrew said: “It sort of escalated into armed police and bomb disposal teams on our drive.

“When they said, 'We’re going to have to ask you to go back into the house and be prepared to evacuate,' I thought: 'Really? This is just unreal!'

"All the neighbours were looking out of their windows at what was happening, it was crazy."

He added: "This was a Christmas he will never forget.”

Andrew, a teaching assistant from the village of Hest Bank, said that wildlife loving William had got the magnet fishing device in his stocking after asking for it for Christmas.

While he’d previously only found bits of scrap metal, the primary school student came across something that looked suspiciously like a bomb during a fishing trip on December 28th.

Andrew said: “Along the way, he’d caught old chains and pennies and certain little things – then he suddenly brought this bomb out of the canal.

“His grandad and William didn’t know what to do with it – they didn’t know if they should chuck it back or run away, but in the end, he rang me on his grandad’s phone.

“He said: ‘Dad, we’ve found this thing. I can’t really tell you what it is, but we’re going to bring it home. But we best leave it in the garage and not bring it in the house.’”

As William walked up the drive at 1:30 pm, Andrew was shocked to see him holding what looked like a bomb.

And after discussing what do to next with a neighbour, the concerned dad rang the police later that evening to let them know about his son’s discovery.

At 10:15 pm, armed officers suddenly showed up outside his home and began to seal off the area around the garage where they’d left the bomb, so no one could go in or out.

Andrew said: “They sent two police cars round, but they weren’t normal police – they were armed police with guns and things like that.

“We showed an officer the bomb, and he said, ‘Yeah, I’m a little bit concerned about this. I’m going to have to take pictures and email them to the bomb disposal unit.’

“I said, “Are you serious? Is this really happening?” He replied, ‘Yeah, it doesn’t look right. I’m going to ask you to not be in the garage and be prepared to evacuate.’”

“They came back and said they were around 80 per cent sure it was safe but 20 per cent sure it was not safe, so they had to send for the bomb disposal unit.

“There were armed police there. They said we’ve got to stay here to make sure no one goes into the garage, or no one takes it.”

Bomb disposal officers finally took the ordnance away to be detonated safely at 11:45 pm.

But before they left, the specialist officer explained to the shocked father that there could have been fatalities if the hundred-year-old device had been triggered by accident.

Andrew said: “The top part hadn’t detonated, and that is a shrapnel bit, and he said if that had gone off, it would have really done some damage to someone.”

“He was basically army, and he explained to William that it was a WW1 bomb. He wasn’t sure how it got to the canal.”

Despite the chaos, William said he was very pleased with his find and the success of his magnetic fishing gear.

Speaking after the incident, he said he was looking forward to using it again, adding: “It was the best Christmas present ever.”